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''Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a hve coal 
in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the aUar ; 
and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy 
lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." — 
Isaiah vi, 6, 7. 



COALS FROM THE ALTAR. 



BY 

REV. H. T. DAVIS. 

Author of "Solitary Places Made Glad," "Perfect Happiness," 
"The Shining Way," and "Modern Miracles." 




** Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his 
hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar : and he 
laid it upon -my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips : and 
thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged," — Isaiah vi, 6, 7. 



OFFICE OF ** GOD'S REVIVALIST," 

Mount of Blessings, 

Cincinnati, Ohio. 



Copyrighted by Mrs. M. W. Knapp, 1903. 






THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Tv/o Copies Recejved 

JUN. 30 1902 

COPVniOHT ENTWV 

I CLASS «/ XXc. No. 
COPY B. 



\ 



Preface. 

God has laid it on me to write ; and I am very glad 
of it. 

I expect to preach through my books long after I 
have gone to heaven. My pen, as well as my tongue, 
is wholly consecrated to God. I write for His glory 
only. 

I send this book forth with the earnest prayer that 
it may lead many souls to Christ and heaven. 

H. T. DAVIS. 
Lincoln, Nebraska, 

April 10, IQ02, 



I 



Contents, 



CHAPTER I. 
Joy in Heaven when Sinners Repent, - . - y 

CHAPTER II. 
The Value of the Soul, - - - - - 20 

CHAPTER III. 

What shall the Harvest be? - - - - 33 

CHAPTER IV. 
Time to Seek God, - - - - - 46 

CHAPTER V. 
God's Infinite Love, ----- . 56 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Pulpit and the Pew, - - - - - 71 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Out-and-Out Christian, - - - - 91 

CHAPTER VHI. 
Prevailing Prayer, ...... 109 

5 



6 Contents, 

chapter ix. 

Christian Certainty, - - - - - 126 

CHAPTER X. 
Fruits of the Holy Spirit, ----- 137 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Ideal Christian, ----- i^y 

CHAPTER XII. 
Paul's Great Prayer, - - - - - - 161 



Coals from the Altar. 



Chapter I. 
JOY IN HEAVEN WHEN SINNERS REPENT. 

"Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of 
the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." — Luke 

XV, 10. 

Years ago, in a densely-timbered part of Ohio, a 
little child wandered away from her cabin home, and 
was lost. The parents, brothers, and sisters went out 
in search for the lost child. Hours passed, but the 
search proved vain. Then the neighbors were notified. 
They came from far and near. All night long they 
wandered through the forest, and all the next day, and 
all the next night. On the evening of the third day 
the child was found, faint, famished, and almost dead 
with weariness and terror. With songs and shouts they 
bore back in their arms the little girl, swift runners 
going before, and crying, ''Found, found !" The entire 
neighborhood was stirred by the glad tidings, and broke 
forth into thanksgiving. All participated in the happi- 
ness of the parents, and, although there were a hundred 
children in the settlement, more joy was felt that night 
over the one little wanderer rescued from death than 



8 COAI^S ^ROM THE A1.TAR. 

over the ninety and nine that had been exposed to no 
danger. 

Far more deeply are the angels in heaven interested 
in the salvation of lost souls than the parents and 
friends were in the finding of that lost child. Greater 
than was the joy that thrilled the hearts of the fond 
parents and friends when that child was found, is the 
joy that moves and stirs all heaven when sinners re- 
pent. ''There is joy in the presence of the angels of 
God over one sinner that repenteth." 

The text is connected with the parable of the lost 
sheep : ''What man having a hundred sheep, if he lose 
one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the 
wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find 
it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his 
shoulders, rejoicing." "And when he cometh home, he 
calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto 
them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep w^hich 
was lost." 

On this parable was founded that wonderful hymn, 
sung with such marvelous power by Mr. Sankey: 

"There were ninety and nine that safely lay 

In the shelter of the fold. 
But one was out on the hills away, 

Far off from the gates of gold. 
Out in the desert He heard its cry — 
Sick and helpless, and ready to die." 

And hearing that cry, the Shepherd ran, nor did He 
stop until the lost was found. 

''Then all thro' the mountains, thunder-riven, 

And up from the rocky steep, 
There rose a cry to the gate of heaven, 

'Rejoice! I have found my sheep!' 
And the angels echoed around the throne, 
'Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!'" 



CoAIyS FROM the; AIvTAR. 9 

I. Let us look for a moment at the characters 
spoken of in the text. 

I. The angels. ''There is joy in the presence of the 
angels." The angels, who are they? Created intelli- 
gencies. How old are they? We know not. Long 
before this world was created they existed. For untold 
ages they have ranged with delight the fields of immor- 
tality, and have been going forth from God's throne 
carrying His mandates. 

The angels are revealed to us as having great power. 
''They excel in strength." They have great wisdom. 
David was said to be wise according to the wisdom of 
an angel. (2 Sam. xiv, 20.) Then they are said to be 
holy and perfectly happy. 

Angels are messengers. A messenger is one who 
carries messages for another. The angels are God's 
messengers, carrying messages from Him to different 
parts of the universe, and carrying messages back to 
heaven from distant worlds. These messages, from dif- 
ferent parts of the universe, are carried by the angels 
up to heaven, not that God may be informed of what is 
going on — for He knows all things — but for the benefit 
of the inhabitants of the heavenly world, angels and 
redeemed spirits. 

All the angelic hosts are employed in the service of 
God. There is not one idler in all the ranks of glory. 
So there should not be one idler in all the ranks of 
God's people on the earth. I love so well to be God's 
messenger here on earth that somehow I feel that, 
when I reach heaven, God will send me off to some 
other world to preach some sort of a gospel. 

There are bad angels as well as good angels. St. 
John the Revealer speaks of "the angel of the bottom- 
less pit." (Rev. ix, 11.) Jude tells of the "angels which 



10 



CoAi.s FROM the: Altar. 



kept not their first estate." (Jude 6.) These fallen 
angels are the messengers of Satan, carrying his mes- 
sages to the children of men, and using all their influ- 
ence and power to lead men down to hell. Our subject 
has to do only with good angels. 

The Scriptures very clearly teach that there are 
gradations in rank in the hierarchy of heaven. There 
are different grades or orders, one rising above another, 
rank above rank. David tells us that these angels ''do 
God's commandments." (Psa. ciii, 20.) They are ready, 
and willing, and anxious to go upon any mission to any 
part of the universe that God may see fit to send them. 
And as ministers and members of the Church on earth, 
God's messengers here below, we should be ready and 
anxious to go on any mission God may see fit to 
send us. 

The seraphim are among the highest ranks of the 
heavenly hosts. The meaning of seraphim is ''fiery 
ones." These fiery ones burn with intense love to God, 
and with an intense desire to carry God's burning love 
to others. It indicates also the fervor of their zeal. 
They are all zeal for the glory of God. These seraphim 
are the messengers of God's love to men. Seraphim 
denotes love ; so w^e read of "seraphic love," burning 
love, love superior to all other love. 

The cherubim are the messengers of God's judg- 
ments. God sends angels forth from His throne on 
errands of love; these are the seraphim. He sends 
angels forth from His throne to execute His judgments ; 
these are the cherubim. 

When David sinned by numbering the people con- 
trary to the will of God, he was permitted to choose one 
of three evils. "Seven years of famine ; flee three months 
before his enemies ; or that there be three days' pestilence 



C0AI.S FROM the; AI.TAR, II 

in the land/* David chose the latter, and God sent an 
angel, a cherubim, and in three days seventy thousand 
of his brave men were destroyed. It was a cherubim 
that slew all the first-born of the Egyptians and raised 
a nation's wail. When Sennacherib, King of Assyria, 
was marching against Jerusalem, Hezekiah prayed to 
be saved from his devastating army, and God answered 
his prayer, saying: ''He shall not come into the city, 
nor shoot an arrow there. By the way that he came, 
by the same shall he return, and shall not come into 
this city.'' That night God sent a cherubim, and one 
hundred and eighty-five thousand fell dead, his army 
was demoralized, and Sennacherib returned the very 
same way that he came. An angel can destroy an 
army, sink a navy, overthrow a nation, and blast all 
the plans of ungodly men. God sent a cherubim and 
smote Herod, and he was eaten with worms. (Acts 
xii, 23.) 

From these incidents, and many others that crowd 
the Scriptures from lid to lid, we have an idea of an 
angel's mighty power. 

Angels have had a deep interest in the affairs of 
this world from the very beginning. Job tells us that 
when God laid the foundations of the earth, ''The morn- 
ing stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy." (Job xxxviii, 7.) The morning stars and the 
sons of God are the angelic hosts. An angel announced 
to the shepherds upon the plains of Bethlehem the 
advent of the world's Redeemer: "Behold, I bring you 
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 
For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a 
Savior." (Luke ii, 10, 11.) At the close of Christ's 
forty days fast in the wilderness, having repelled every 
fiery attack made by Satan, "angels came and ministered 



12 



CoAi.s FROM THE Altar. 



unto Him/' (Matt, iv, ii.) When in the garden of 
Gethsemane, bending beneath the weight of the world's 
sins, sweating great drops of blood, an angel came from 
heaven and strengthened Him. (Luke xxii, 43.) And, 
as angels ministered to Christ in the wilderness, and 
strengthened Him in His agony in the Garden, so, all 
along the ages, angels have been sent to minister to 
God's faithful children. And by the strength imparted 
to them, they have endured what they otherwise could 
not. 

Julian, the Roman Emperor, called the Apostate, 
after he had renounced Christianity became a great 
persecutor of Christians. He put to extreme torment 
a Christian by the name of Theodorus, and finally re- 
leased him when he found that he was unconquerable. 
Afterwards a friend said to Theodorus, ''When you lay 
upon the rack, full of sharp iron spikes, was not the 
pain insufferable?" He answered, "At first the pain 
was terrible ; but after a while there seemed to stand by 
my side a young man in white, who, with a soft and 
comfortable handkerchief, wiped off the bloody sweat 
from my body, bidding me be of good courage, and 
giving me such comfort that it was a real punishment 
rather than a pleasure for me to be taken from the 
rack." When the tormentor was done, the angel was 
gone. 

David says, "The angel of the Lord encampeth 
round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." 
(Psa. xxxiv, 7.) Elisha, at Dothan, saw the mountain 
round about him full of horses and chariots of fire, 
presenting an impassable barrier between him and the 
Assyrian army. Armies of angels encamp round about 
the followers of the Lord God Almighty. An angel 
descended from heaven and rolled back the stone from 



CoAivS i^ROM the; Awar. 13 

the door of the sepulcher when Christ rose from the 
grave. And when He ascended to heaven, did not 

"Cherubic legions guard Him home, 
And shout Him welcome to the skies?" 

Angels are actively engaged in looking after the 
welfare of all God's children. "Are they not all minis- 
tering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall 
be heirs of salvation?" (Heb. i, 14.) So intensely in- 
terested are they in the welfare of men that they rejoice 
whenever a soul repents. ''There is joy in the presence 
of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.'' 

II. The second character mentioned in the text is 
the repenting sinner. ''Over one sinner that repenteth." 
A repenting sinner thrills all heaven with delight. 

I. The first essential to repentance is conviction. God, 
by His Spirit and in various ways, irresistibly convicts 
every man of sin. We need not say to any unconverted 
man, "You are a sinner and need pardon, or you will 
be lost forever." The Holy Spirit has told him that 
many and many a time. No man living but what has 
been convicted of sin. Conviction does not necessarily 
lead to genuine repentance. Millions are convicted who 
never repent. They throw off conviction, repel all the 
hallowed influences of the Holy Spirit, and all the draw- 
ings of ministering angels, the kind entreaties of rela- 
tives and friends, ministers of the gospel, and the 
Church. They harden their hearts, and at last they are 
cut off, and that without remedy. In spite of all the 
warnings of conscience, and all the drawings of the 
Holy Ghost, and all the wooing of angels, and all the 
restraining influences of the gospel, they make their 
way down to hell. 



14 Coals from th^ Altar. 

2. The energizing force of genuine repentance is 
sorrow for sin. ''Godly sorrow worketh repentance to 
salvation not to be repented of." (2 Cor. vii, 10.) It is 
heartfelt sorrow for having offended the dearest and 
best Friend man ever had. A criminal on his way to 
the place of execution cried out, and continued to cry 
out to the very last, ''O God, I am so sorry I have 
offended Thee!" Not sorry that he had been caught, 
nor that he had been convicted and condemned, but 
sorry that he had offended God, his best and dearest 
Friend. That was one of the best and clearest evidences 
of a genuine penitent. 

3. The final effect of genuine repentance is renunci- 
ation of all sin. 

I am a great sinner. The Holy Ghost tells me so. 
My own conscience tells me so. I am sorry I have 
sinned against God, my dearest and best Friend. I will 
quit sin. I will face about. I will turn my back for- 
ever upon all that is wrong. "Let the wicked forsake 
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let 
him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon 
him ; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." 
(Isa. Iv, 7.) 

Now, when a man is convicted of sin, feels that he 
is lost forever unless pardoned through the atoning 
merits of Christ, has deep sorrow for sin, renounces all 
sin, and says in his heart, I will never sin again, that 
man is a genuine penitent, and is very near the king- 
dom. One step more and he will be in. I think very 
few, if any, go that far and stop. Having taken all 
these steps, they are quite sure to take the next, which 
is that of faith in Christ. 

When the angels see one who has all these elements 
of repentance, they rejoice; because they know well 



CoAIvS P^ROM the: AIvTAR. 1 5 

that that soul is just ready to enter the kingdom of 
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, 
and, knowing this, they rejoice. A cord of joy is struck 
that vibrates throughout all the realms of Glory. 

III. Why do the' angels rejoice when sinners re- 
pent? 

1. They rejoice when a sinner repents, because the 
image of Christ has been restored to his heart, and that 
he will now go out to work for the salvation of others. 
They see not only what he has become himself, but what 
he will be to others ; a wave of influence for good has 
been started that will roll on forever, hence they rejoice. 

2. They rejoice because of the sufferings the sinner 
has escaped. From the descriptions given us in the 
Bible' the sufferings of the lost must be great. The 
angels of heaven know something of hell. Not that 
they have ever been in hell. But they remember when 
a third part of the heavenly hosts rebelled, and the 
right hand of the Jehovah was wrapped in thunder, and 
they pursued Lucifer and his cohorts to the battlements 
of heaven, saw them hurled over, caught a glimpse of 
the bottomless pit, heard the wild shriek of the lost, 
and saw the smoke that ascendeth up for ever and ever. 
So when a sinner repents, the angels rejoice; for they 
know, far better than we, the awful sufferings he has 
escaped. The sinner suffers much here, from doubt, 
uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. When he repents he 
escapes all this present suffering. Doubt, uncertainty, 
anxiety, and fear take wings and fly away, and the peace 
of God that passeth all understanding fills the soul. 
Hallelujah ! This is a great salvation. No wonder the 
angels rejoice when sinners get it. 

3. Another reason why the angels rejoice when a 



1 6 C0AI.S FROM the: AIvTAR. 

sinner repents is, they know that another soul will for- 
ever participate with them in the joys of heaven. The 
angels know all about heaven. For untold ages they 
have ranged with delight the plains of glory. They 
have seen its beauty, realized its unearthly joy, and have 
joined in the rising, swelling anthem of praise to God 
and the Lamb. Not a sigh has ever escaped their lips, 
not a tear has ever dimmed their eyes, not a sorrow has 
ever pierced their souls. No wonder they want the 
inhajbitants of a sorrowing world to be made partakers 
of these heavenly joys. No wonder they are glad when 
a sinner is tired of sin, and wants to break away from 
its fetters and get free. 

''We talk about pearly gates, and golden streets, and 
white robes, and harps of gold, and crowns of amaranth, 
and all that ; but if an angel could speak to us of heaven, 
he would smile and say, ''All these fine things are but 
child's talk compared to the reality." "Thine eye hath 
never yet beheld its splendors ; thine ear hath never yet 
been ravished with its melodies ; thy heart has never 
been transported with its peerless joys." You may talk, 
and think, and guess, and dream, but you can never 
measure the infinite heaven which God has provided for 
His children. Therefore, when a sinner repents, the 
angels clap their hands and shout; for they know all 
these joys are to be his forever. 

A poor, neglected little boy, in ragged clothing, had 
run about the streets for many a day. Tutored in 
crime, he was paving his path to the gallows ; but one 
morning he passed by a humble room, where some men 
and women were sitting together teaching poor, ragged 
children. He stepped in. They talked to him. They 
told him about a soul and an eternity — things he had 
never heard before. They spoke of Jesus and of the 



CoAI.S FROM THE AlvTAR. 1 7 

good tidings of great joy he had brought to men. He 
went another Sabbath, and then another, his wild habits 
hanging about him; (or he could not get rid of them. 
At last his teacher said to him, ''J^sus Christ receiveth 
sinners." That little boy ran, but not home. He ran, 
and under a dry arch, in a wild, unfrequented corner, 
he' bent his little knees and cried, 'Xord, save me, or I 
perish." The Lord answered. The little boy was saved ; 
and up from that old arch, that forsaken hovel, there 
flew an angel, glad to bear the news to heaven, that 
another heir of glory was born to God. 

Away up in a garret, where the stars could look 
between the tiles, on a bed of straw lay a poor woman, 
racked with pain and scorched with fever. Many a night 
she had walked the streets in her merriment; but now 
her joys were over; a foul disease, like a demon, was 
devouring her life. She was dying. No one cared for 
her soul. But there, in that lonely attic, she turned 
her face to the wall and cried, ''O Thou that didst save 
Magdalene, save me ! I am sorry I have sinned. I 
repent." No bells rang in the street. No trumpet was 
blown. No sound of thanksgiving was heard in the 
great congregation. No one on earth rejoiced, for she 
died unseen. But mark ! There was one standing at 
her bedside who noted well that tear ; an angel who had 
come down from heaven to watch over this stray sheep, 
and mark its return; and no sooner was her prayer 
uttered than he spread his wings and soared to the 
pearly gates of Glory. Heavenly guards came crowding 
round the gate to hear the news. And as he told the 
story of the wanderer's return, all heaven echoed and 
re-echoed with their rapturous shouts of joy. ''There 
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one 
sinner that repenteth." Glory to God for ever and ever! 



l8 CoAIvS ^ROM the: A1.TAR. 

We learn from this subject the worth of the soul. 
It must be of inestimable value, or it would not be 
desired by all that are in heaven and all that are in hell. 
All heaven wants it. All hell wants it. 

1. God the Father wants the soul. He is intensely 
interested in your welfare. He longs for your salva- 
tion. Hear Him : "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have 
no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the 
wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye, 
for why will ye die?" (Ezek. xxxiii, 11.) 

2. Christ wants the soul. He, too, longs for your 
salvation. He left heaven that you might be saved. 
When 

'Tlunged in a gulf of dark despair, 
We wretched sinners lay, 
Without one cheering beam of hope, 
Or spark of glimmering day, — 

With pitying eyes the Prince of peace 

Beheld our helpless grief; 
He saw, and, O amazing love! 

He flew to our relief. 

Down from the shining seats above, 

With joyful haste He sped. 
Entered the grave in mortal flesh. 

And dwelt among the dead." 

His sorrowful life. His agony in the garden. His 
crucifixion on Calvary, His entering into the grave — all 
this suffering that you might escape a burning hell and 
gain a glorious heaven. His tender and pathetic appeal, 
as He looked over the doomed city of Jerusalem, gives 
us a faint idea of His great interest in our welfare : ''O 
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, 
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how ofte'n 



CoAivS i^ROM th:^ Altar. 19 

would I have gathered thy children together, even as a 
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
would not y (Matt, xxiii, 37.) 

3. The Holy Spirit wants the soul. He is at work, 
always and everywhere, reproving of sin, warning of 
danger, wooing the unsaved. 

4. The angels are interested, intensely interested, in 
your salvation. They are all ministering spirits, sent 
forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of sal- 
vation. 

5. All the good on earth are interested in your wel- 
fare. Faithful ministers, devoted Christians, loving 
fathers and mothers, — all are solicitous, intensely anx- 
ious for your salvation. 

And now we ask. Shall God, and Christ, and the 

Holy Ghost, and the angels, and all the good on earth 

be interested in your soul's welfare, and you alone be 

indifferent ? 

"Angels now are hovering round us, 
Unperceived amid the throng." 

They are watching you. They are waiting for you to 
surrender, that they may bear the glad news to the 
skies, and electrify with joy the angelic hosts. O, decide 
this matter now ! Stay, ye heavenly messengers, a Httle 
longer; wait a moment more, until those who are hesi- 
tating shall decide. Let the decision now be made. I 
will be a Christian. Let the news now fly over the hills 
and plains of glory, ''The dead are aHve, the lost are 
found." 



Chapter II. 
THE VALUE OF THE SOUL. 

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in ex- 
change for his soul?" — Matt, xvi, 26. 

When Christ was upon earth He appealed to the 
hopes and fears of men as motives to purity. In the 
text, as in many other passages of Scripture, He appeals 
to the fear of loss and the hope of gain. ''What is a 
man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose 
his own soul?'' 

In all business circles profit and loss is the question 
that rises above all other questions. It is the great and 
all-important question, and before this one question 
all other questions drop out of sight. When a man is 
about to engage in any business enterprise whatever, 
the first question he asks is, "Will it pay?'' ''Shall I 
lose or gain in the operation?" The cost is carefully 
counted. He weighs with exactness the probabilities 
of success. He takes into careful consideration every- 
thing that in any way bears upon the subject, in order 
that he may ascertain, if possible, whether he will lose 
or gain in the operation. 

And is it not strange, passing strange, that men are 

20 



COAlwS FROM THE Al^TAR. 21 

SO careful to ascertain the loss and profit touching 
things of minor importance, and so careless, and seem- 
ingly utterly indifferent, touching those things which 
are of the greatest importance ? The loss or gain of the 
soul is a subject that rises in importance infinitely above 
all other subjects. The eternal gain of the soul is a 
treasure the value of which can not possibly be esti- 
mated, and the loss of the soul the most dreadful and 
appalling catastrophe in the wide universe. The loss 
of the soul is an infinite loss, the gain of the soul an 
infinite gain. 

Christ appealed more to man's fears than his hopes 
as an incentive to duty. He dwelt more on the dangers 
to which men are exposed than on any other one sub- 
ject. His cry everywhere was. Repent! ''Except ye 
repent, ye shall all Hkewise perish.'' He taught every- 
where, and all the time, that men were in danger, great, 
awful danger. He taught that men were in such great 
danger of falHng into wreck and ruin that it was abso- 
lutely necessary to put forth every possible effort in 
order to be saved. Hence He cries out to the people 
of His day, and of all ages as well, ''Strive to enter in at 
the strait gate ;" or, as the margin translates it, "Agonize, 
agonize to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, I say 
unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able, 
when once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath 
shut to the door." (Luke xiii, 24, 25.) Many will seek 
to enter heaven, but will never get in ; many will wish 
and earnestly desire heaven, but will be eternally shut 
out. A wish will not take us there ; an intense, earnest 
desire will not lead us there. If we would gain heaven, 
we must "agonize," bend every energy, strain every 
nerve to its utmost tension, and sacrifice, if need be, 
every earthly object. 



1 



22 Coals :prom the: Ai^tar. 

The same idea is brought out in Matt, xi, 12: ''The 
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent 
take it by force/' Only by violent earnestness will the 
kingdom of heaven be gained. If we are not absolutely 
determined to gain heaven at any cost and at all hazards, 
I am afraid we never shall get there. 

The question in the text suggests the value of the 
soul. It suggests that in value it rises infinitely above 
silver and gold, houses and lands, stocks and all worldly 
honors. All these things belong to time, and will soon 
pass away. 

I. The value of the soul will be seen if we notice 
for a moment its duration. 

Both reason and Revelation unite in declaring that 
the soul is immortal. Job says, ''There is a spirit in 
man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him 
understanding." What the Bible clearly reveals, men 
everywhere, and in all ages, have believed. Go to the 
inhabitants of the islands of the seas, go to the most 
benighted people on the globe, go down into "darkest 
Africa," and you will find that the people everywhere 
feel and believe that death does not end all, but that 
they are to live forever. God has indelibly stamped 
upon every human heart the great fact of immortality. 
Addison asks: 

"Whence comes this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing after immortality? 
Or whence this secret dread and inward horror 
Of falling into naught? 
*Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 
'T is heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 
And intimates eternity to man." 



CoAIvS FROM the: AxTAR. 23 

Again says Addison: 

''The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years; 
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, 
Unhurt amid the war of elements, 
The v^^reck of matter, and the crush of worlds." 

We have entered upon a career that shall run paral- 
lel with the existence of God Himself, that may go on 
brightening forever. So where is the profit if we gain 
the whole world and lose the soul ? The world with its 
vast possessions belongs to time. "The lust of the 
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is 
not of the Father, but of the world, and the world 
passeth away." (i John ii, i6.) Better have nothing 
here and everything hereafter, than have everything 
here for a little while, and then be a pauper through all 
the ages of eternity. Better infinitely to beg, as did 
Lazarus, the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table 
while on earth, and be a millionaire in glory, than be 
clothed in purple and fine linen and fare sumptuously 
every day while here, and at last lift up our eyes, and 
forever cry for a drop of water to cool our tongue. 

Mr. Moody speaks of "long-sighted and short- 
sighted men." Abraham was what you might call a 
long-sighted man. He was not tempted by the well- 
watered plains of Sodom, for he had his eyes fixed on 
the city which hath foundation, whose builder and 
maker is God. Lot was a short-sighted man. He saw 
only the things that were near by, and right around 
him that he thought good. Abraham had glimpses of 
the Celestial City, Moses was a long-sighted man. He 
left the palaces of Egypt and all the splendors of the 
Egyptian court, and identified himself with the people 



24 CoAIvS I^ROM THE A1.TAR. 

of God, who were a nation of slaves, because he "had 
respect unto the recompense of reward." He was look- 
ing for something infinitely better away out yonder. 
To-day, as in every age, there are long-sighted and 
short-sighted men. In every community there are the 
long-sighted and the short-sighted men. The short- 
sighted are content with the things of this world alone. 
The long-sighted are building for themselves homes 
beyond the stars. The poet has well said : 

''He builds too low 
Who builds below the skies/^ 

A minister visited and preached for a brother minister. 
He took for his text, ''Not slothful in business.'' After 
services were over the pastor said: "We do not want 
that kind of preaching in this city. The people here 
are all diligent in business. You made a great mis- 
take. All exhortations on that line is work thrown 
away. You ought to have taken the latter part of that 
verse for your text, 'Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.' 
The' citizens of this city need no exhortation on the line 
of 'diligence in business.' In this matter they are awake. 
They are all energy and zeal ; they are abreast with the 
liveliest city of the land. What is needed is not more 
diligence in business, but more 'fervency in spirit in 
serving the Lord.' " 

If men were just as "fervent in spirit, serving the 
Lord," as they are "diligent in business," it would not 
be long until a sorrowing world would dry up its tears, 
and complaint would everywhere give place to praise. 

II. The value of the soul will appear if we consider 
its capacity to suffer or enjoy. 

The capacities of the soul, like its duration, are in- 



COAI.S FROM the: AWAR. 25 

finite. Its capacity to enjoy is infinite; its capacity to 
suffer is infinite. The loss of the soul is the loss of en- 
joyment. The loss of enjoyment is suffering. God only 
knows how much a human heart can suffer. Many a 
one, to cut short his sufferings here, has put an end to 
his life. The suicidal graves all over the land tell too 
plainly of the soul's capacity for suffering. Sin is the 
cause of all suffering. Sin brings sorrow, pain, and 
remorse. Sin fills our jails, penitentiaries, and asylums. 
Sin digs suicidal graves, and sends thousands without 
a ray of hope into eternity. What untold suffering has 
sin brought into the world ! 

On the other hand, God only knows how much a 
human heart can enjoy. Let all sin be eradicated from 
the heart by the power of Divine grace, and there comes 
into the soul a joy that is absolutely indescribable. Paul 
says it is '^unspeakable and full of glory.'' In spite of 
all surroundings and all bodily sufferings, it arises in its 
majesty and power, and asserts its supremacy. 

A soldier on the field of battle, with both of his legs 
shot away, said to his chaplain, "Last night, as I lay 
here looking up into the stars, I prayed, and Jesus came 
to my side, and it was the happiest night of my life." 
Just think of it, both of his legs shot away, death staring 
him in the face, and yet happier than he had ever been 
in all his Hfe before ! That only shows the capacity of 
the soul to enjoy, no matter what the pains of the body 
may be. 

A lady, an invalid for years, said to a friend, "The 
work of some is to preach the gospel, the work of others 
is to give of their means for the support of the gospel, 
the work of others to visit the sick and relieve the suffer- 
ing; but my work is just to lay here and cough, and I 
am perfectly happy in my work." Glory be to God 



26 CoAI.S FROM THIS AlvTAR. 

forever! The capacity of the soul for enjoyment in this 
world is so great that it scorns all earthly surroundings. 

If, then, its capacity for enjoyment is so great that 
it enjoys in spite of all the pains of body and mind 
while here on earth, what will it be when it sweeps in- 
finitely beyond the realm of sin? The thought is a 
grand one. Granting, for the sake of the argument, 
that the world brings to the heart perfect enjoyment, 
real pleasure, all admit that this great joy must termi- 
nate in a very little while ; for Hfe is short, so short that 
it is compared to the ''passing cloud,'' the ''morning 
dew,'' "the shadow upon the wall." 

Where is the profit, therefore, of bartering away 
enjoyment that is eternal in its duration, and infinite 
in blessedness, for enjoyment that is only momentary, 
and not in itself perfectly satisfying? Is that a good 
trade? That is not the way the business men of this 
world barter. When men make trades here, it is for 
gain. Why not be as wise in spiritual matters as in 
temporal? Christianity is not unreasonable. It is not 
in opposition to sound judgment and common sense. 
Christ appeals to our common sense and good judg- 
ment. He wants us to be guided in this matter, as in 
every other, by sound business principles. Hence He 
raises the question, "What is a man profited if he shall 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Thirty 
years ago, on a cold December day, I left my home in 
Lincoln for Butler County, where I was to hold quar- 
terly-meeting. About three o'clock in the afternoon, 
when on the high divide between David City and Oak 
Creek, a heavy storm came on. The wind began to 
blow, and it blew harder and harder ; the snow began to 
fall, and it fell faster and faster ; and the weather rapidly 
grew colder and colder. I saw the road was filling with 



CoAi.s FROM the; A1.TAR. 27 

snow, and in a little while would be entirely lost to view; 
and I knew very well that, to be caught out overnight 
on that high divide in such a storm as was then raging, 
would be hazardous in the extreme. Silently I Hfted my 
heart to God in prayer. A few minutes afterwards I 
saw a dim road leading to the right. I took that road. 
It led down a deep ravine, and, following it about a mile 
and a half, I came to a log-cabin standing on the bank 
of Oak Creek. I drove up to the barn, where the man 
of the house was unloading hay, and said to him, "Can 
I stay all night with you to-night?'' ''Yes, sir. Get 
out, get out, and go into the fire, and I will take care 
of your team.'' I found the man and his wife to be de- 
voted Christians, and members of the Baptist Church, 
and I never was more royally entertained than in their 
humble home. I had hardly got warm when the good 
woman said: 

''We have just returned from the grave of one of 
our neighbors." 

"Was he a Christian?" I asked. 
"O no ; anything but a Christian. He was the wicked- 
est man in all this region of the country. He professed 
to be an infidel; worked on the Sabbath just as on any 
other day, and seemed determined to be a rich man. 
All he thought of was making money. He would not 
allow his family to go to Church or Sunday-school." 

"Well," said I, "how did he die?" 

"Awful," said she. "It was the most terrible death 
that was ever witnessed by any of those that were 
present. When the doctor told him that he could not 
live, he said : 'Doctor, I can't die ; I am not ready to 
die. You must not let me die.' The doctor said to 
him : 'If you have any business to transact, do it at once, 
for you can only live a little while. You are almost 



28 Coals from the x\ltar. 

gone now.' Then he called his wife and children to his 
bedside and said to them : 'O, if I only had my Hfe to 
live over again, how differently would I live ! Do n't 
live as I have lived. Go to Church and the Sunday- 
school every Sabbath, and do n't throw your lives away 
as I have done,' and died.'' 

It was the old, old story, — the story that will go on 
repeating itself, we fear, as long as the world stands, — 
a life of sin and a death of despair. "What is a man 
profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his 
ow^n soul?" 

A young man graduated with the highest honors of 
his Alma Mater. He was briUiant. He was the finest 
mathematician that had ever walked the halls of the 
great university. Soon after graduation, a minister, 
who had known him from boyhood, met him and said: 
''I understand that you are celebrated for your mathe- 
matical skill. I have a problem I wish you to solve." 

''Tell me what it is," said the voung man, ''and I 
will try." 

The clergyman answered, "What is a man profited 
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" 

The young man walked away in silence, saying to 
himself, "It is a great problem." The question rang in 
his ears, by day and by night. Everywhere he went it 
seemed to sound louder and louder. "What if I gain 
the world and lose my soul?" Finally he said, "I will 
solve the problem." He weighed the matter carefully. 
He looked at the problem in a business-like way, and 
said to himself, "There is no profit, if I gain all the 
pleasures, and all the wealth, and all the honors of the 
world, and lose my soul." He at once surrendered him- 
self to God, accepted Christ as his Savior, and after- 
wards became an eminent minister of the gospel. 



CoAivS ]?ROM THE Altar. 29 

The soul; its value; who can estimate it? The poet 
tried and failed. 

''Behold this midnight wonder, wodds on worlds, 
Redouble that amaze; add twice ten thousand more; 
Then weigh the whole, — one soul outweighs them all." 

Yet this soul, rising in value above all worlds and 
all systems — this soul, infinite in duration — men barter 
away for the vain, chaffy, fleeting, and unsatisfying 
things of earth. Everything earthly must be laid down 
at the door of the grave. Beyond this no earthly object 
can be carried. Get honor ; you must lay it down at the 
door of the tomb. Get earthly pleasures ; you must bid 
them all an eternal farewell at the mouth of the grave. 
Get wealth ; you can not carry it with you through the 
tomb. A dying man looked at his shroud and said: 
"There is no bank in my shroud." No, nor pockets 
either. He could not put his money in his pocket and 
carry it with him. All had to be left behind. 

A man of great wealth died. Success had crowned 
his unwearied efforts, and a large fortune was the result 
of a life spent in the accumulation of earthly goods. He 
died in the morning, soon after the sun had risen, and 
all through the day men were commenting on the event. 
"He died rich;" "He amassed a handsome fortune;" 
"He was successful in business ;" "He left a large prop- 
erty;" and so the comments ran. Finally a poor man 
spoke up, "Yes, but he had to leave it all." 

Men may heap to themselves the wealth of worlds, 
and gather around them all earthly riches ; but they 
must all come shoulder to shoulder in the march of life, 
lay down their armor, their burdens, and their treasures 
at the door of the tomb, and together enter and explore 
the mysteries of the spirit-world. There is only one 



30 Coals from the Altar. 

thing we can carry with us through the darkness of 
death, — a hope of heaven through the atoning merits 
of Jesus Christ. This priceless treasure is something 
of which the grave can not rob the soul ; for it is not 
of earth, it is of heaven. 

''Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath 
begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incor- 
ruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.'' 
(i Peter i, 3, 4.) See to it. my dear friends, that this 
inheritance is yours. Do n't barter it away for a trifle. 
Do n't make any mistake here. "For what is a man 
profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul?'' 

Some twenty-five years ago I held quarterly-meeting 
at Firth, Nebraska. I was entertained by an excellent 
Christian lady, and a leading member of the Church. 
An uncle from Ohio, a man about eighty years old, was 
visiting her. He was not communicative, but morose, 
and gruf? in his manner. I tried several times to draw 
him out in conversation, but failed. Saturday night I 
invited him to go with us to church. He cut me off 
very short, saying, 'T do n't want to go to church." 
Sunday morning I gave him another kind invitation to 
go with us to Church. He cut me off about as short as 
he did the night before, and then said, *'I am perfectly 
willing to take my chances of getting to heaven on 
being a good ^lason.'' I made no reply. We went to 
Church, and he remained at home. At the dinner-table 
I sat right in front of him. I looked him squarely in 
the face and said: 

"Brother, you made a remark this morning I have 
been thinking about." 



CoAIvS i^ROM the: AIvTAR. 31 

"Well," said he, "what was it?" 

"You said you were 'perfectly willing to take your 
chances of getting to heaven on being a good Mason.' " 

"Yes, that 's what I said, and so I am." 

"Well," said I, "my dear brother, you do n't want 
to take any chances touching the salvation of your 
soul. Your soul is of too much value for you to run 
any risk or take any chances with regard to its salva- 
tion. Besides, you need not take any chances. It is 
your privilege to know now, with absolute certainty, 
that you are a saved man." And then I handed over 
to him promise after promise, as the Spirit gave them 
to me. I said to him: "Christ says, 'If any man will 
do His will he shall know of the doctrine;' 'The Spirit 
itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the 
children of God ;' And Paul says, 'We know that if our 
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have 
a building of God, a house not made with hands, eter- 
nal in the heavens.' Now," I said, "you can't afford to 
take any chances touching the salvation of your soul. 
There is too much at stake for you to run any risk 
whatever." From that time on he was very communi- 
cative, and seeemd like a different man. 

The next morning, when train-time came, he took 
my grip and carried it all the way to the depot. It was 
quite heavy, and I tried to have him let me rest him, 
but in vain. When we reached the depot we talked 
together until the train came. When the train came I 
took him by the hand to say good-bye, when he said, 
with great emotion, "I am very glad I met you." I 
replied, "Do n't take any chances touching the salvation 
of your soul. Give your heart to God at once and be- 
come a Christian." He made no reply. But the warm 
grasp of the hand, and the tears glistening in his eyes 



32 CoAIvS I^ROM TH^ Al^TAR. 

indicated to me that he would do as I advised. I never 
saw him again, but somehow I felt that he would follow 
my advice. 

Now, here was a man, eighty years old, just on the 
verge of the grave, taking his chances of getting to 
heaven on being a member of a human organization. 
No wise man will take any such chances. No man liv- 
ing can afford to run such a great risk as that. No 
wise man will do so. ''What is a man profited if he 
shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?'' 



II 



Chapter III. 

WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? 

" Be not deceived ; God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh 
shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the 
Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." — Gai,. vi, 7, 8. 

What shall the harvest be? This is a question of 
the highest moment ; a question of the utmost impor- 
tance to every man and woman and child that walks 
the earth; a question fraught with interest high as 
heaven, deep as hell, and lasting as eternity. 

What shall the harvest be? Shall it be one of 
wealth, or one of poverty ; one of joy, or one of sorrow ; 
one of hope, or one of despair? Shall it be heaven, or 
shall it be hell? One or the other it must be; which, 
depends upon the kind of seed we sow here. ''Whatso- 
ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 

The importance of sowing good seed must be ap- 
parent to all. Everybody knows that, in the natural 
world, the harvest always partakes of the same nature 
of the seed sown. If you sow wheat, the harvest will 
be wheat; if you sow oats, the harvest will be oats; if 
you sow barley, the harvest will be barley ; if you plant 
corn, the harvest will be corn. This is one of the im- 
mutable laws of nature. It never varies. It is as un- 
changeable as God Himself. 
3 33 



34 CoAi.s :from thi: Ai.tar. 

The same is true in the intellectual world. If the 
boy is untiring in his studies, in the school, the college, 
the university, the harvest will be a cultured mind — an 
intellect stored with useful knowledge that will fit him 
for the highest positions of honor and usefulness in the 
world. On the other hand, if the boy is lazy and indo- 
lent, and plays hookey at school, goes into his classes 
with lessons unprepared, the harvest will be an empty 
head and a mind unfitted for any of the responsible, 
lucrative, and useful positions in life. 

Two boys of the same age, living in a western 
county in Nebraska, attended the same school. One of 
these boys Hved in the country, four miles from the 
school; the other boy lived in the village, right by the 
side of the schoolhouse. The boy living in the country 
never missed a day in four years, never was tardy, al- 
ways had his lessons, and at the end of four years grad- 
uated with the highest honor from the high school. He 
went to the Nebraska Wesleyan University, graduated 
with honor from that institution, then took a graduate 
course in the State University of Wisconsin, came back 
to Lincoln, and taught a year in the public schools of 
the city. At the close of the school year I met him, 
and he said : 

"I want to talk with you." 

"All right," said I. 

"I have felt for a long time," said he, "that possibly 
it is my duty to preach. I am perfectly willing to do 
so if it is my duty. But the ministry is such a high and 
sacred calling, I would not for the world undertake it 
unless I knew with absolute certainty God had called 
me to this work." 

He told me his experience, and when he had done 
I said to him : "I have not the shadow of a doubt but 



CoAIvS I^ROM THEi Al^TAR. 35 

that God has called you to preach. My advice is, take 
license at once and join the Conference this fall." 

He did so, and for five years has been a successful 
minister of the gospel, highly respected, loved, and 
honored by all who know him, and has a brilliant future 
before him. 

The other boy, who lived right by the side of the 
schoolhouse, was lazy and indolent, played hookey, and 
went into his classes with lessons unprepared. Two 
years ago the minister went back to visit his old home. 
He met his old schoolmate. He found him living in a 
little shanty at the outskirts of the village making a 
living as best he could, working here and there by the 
day when he could get a job. They sat down and talked 
together for a long time. Finally, the one living in the 
shanty said to the other one: ''Roscoe, I had the same 
opportunity of making a man of myself that you had. 
I had the very same advantages and privileges that 
you had. You improved yours ; I neglected mine. If 
I had only improved my privileges as you did yours, I 
might have had just as bright a future before me as you 
have.'' And then, in a melancholy voice, he continued : 
"You have a brilliant future before you ; I have nothing 
to look forward to or hope for.'' 

''Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
On every hand we see this immutable law. If a man is 
lazy, indolent, and trifling, the harvest will be poverty. 
If he is industrious, energetic, and frugal, the harvest 
will be plenty. This law holds good in the moral world 
as well. "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh 
reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall 
of the Spirit reap life everlasting." The flesh here 
means sin; the Spirit means purity. If you sow sin, the 
harvest will be misery. If you sow a life of purity, the 



$6 CoAIvS ]?ROM THE AlvTAR. 

harvest will be happiness here, and eternal glory here- 
after. 

The farmer has in view all the time the harvest. If 
he sows wheat he selects the best seed. If he plants 
corn, he selects his seed early, and he selects the very 
best. I have gone into the barn of the thrifty farmer 
in the fall of the year, and have seen the long rows of 
seed-corn hung up by the husks on poles. The farmer 
has selected his seed-corn for the coming spring. He 
has his eye on the harvest. Why are not men as wise 
in spiritual as in temporal affairs? 

The mystery of all mysteries is, that men all around 
us regard the less and disregard the greater. They are 
all energy and zeal so far as their interest in this world 
is concerned, but perfectly indififerent and unconcerned 
touching their future and eternal interest. What is this 
life compared to eternity? And where will you spend 
eternity ? What shall the harvest be ? That 's the ques- 
tion. It 's the mightiest question of the age. It 's the 
question that concerns you and me and everybody. 
What shall the harvest be? Where shall I spend 
eternity ? 

"Be not deceived." The arch deceiver of the world 
walks the earth to-day with deceptive words, graceful 
smiles, and artful cunning. Satan to-day, as in Christ's 
day, is deceiving one here, and another there, and an- 
other yonder. That young man, as he goes into the 
saloon, is deceived. That young lady, as she whirls in 
the mazy dance with lecherous arms around her, is de- 
ceived. That man and woman, as they sit at the card- 
table hour after hour, murdering time, are deceived. 
That man who stealthily creeps into the house of the 
silly woman whose steps take hold on hell, is deceived. 
The brothel, the saloon, the mazy dance, the fascinating 



CoAI.S I^ROM THE Al,TAR. 37 

cards, are all traps laid by Satan to catch the unwary. 
Satan spreads these alluring snares, and is taking in 
men and women by the thousand. 

A dying girl, just blooming into womanhood, called 
her mother to her bedside, and said: ''Mother, you 
taught me to dance ; you said it would introduce me into 
the best society; now I am dying, and I am going to 
hell, and you are to blame for it." The mother and 
daughter sowed the dance, — hell was the harvest. O 
what shall the harvest be? 

Our acts are seed. How carefully, then, should we 
act! Every act is a seed sown, and it will germinate, 
and grow, and ripen, and the harvest will be like the 
seed sown, but it will be far more abundant. This is 
another one of the immutable laws of nature. We reap 
more than we sow. The harvest is greater than the 
seed. 

Plant one grain of corn, and you will reap eight 
hundred grains. Sow one seed of oats, and you will 
reap hundreds of grains. A man in the western part 
of Nebraska paid fifty cents for a pound of millet-seed ; 
the harvest was fifteen bushels. We reap more than 
we sow. 

Eve took the forbidden apple, dropped this little 
seed, and it has filled the world with woe, misery, and 
death. The dark, slimy trail of that one sin is more than 
six thousand years long. The sighs it has produced 
would make a whirlwind, the tears it has caused would 
make an ocean, the bones of its slain would make a 
mountain towering to the skies. 

Sow saloons ; the harvest will be drunkards, blasted 
hopes, blighted prospects, desolated homes, starving 
children, broken-hearted wives, mothers, brothers, and 
sisters. O, the devastation of the saloon ! What shall 



38 CoAi.s FROM the: Ai.tar. 

the harvest be of the saloon-keeper? What shall the 
harvest be of the aiders and abettors of the saloon ? 

Years ago I went down to Humboldt, Nebraska, 
to hold a quarterly-meeting. A brother, who was to 
entertain me, met me at the depot. He was always 
loquacious, but this time he had nothing at all to say. 
I was surprised at his reticence. We walked several 
rods without his saying a word. Finally he broke the 
silence by saying: ''We have just returned from the 
grave of the leading saloon-keeper of our town. The 
citizens and friends took turn watching him during his 
last illness. He would not allow them to leave him 
alone for a single moment. The lamps had to be kept 
brightly burning all the time during the night. If the 
room was dark for a moment, he seemed wild with 
fear. Just as the last breath was leaving him, he threw 
up both hands and exclaimed, 'Oh!' and his hair rose 
and stood straight on end. We tried to comb it down, 
but could not. We wet it with water, and then tried, 
but in vain. We oiled it, then used comb and brush, 
but could do nothing with it. We placed him in the 
casket, and his hair stood out straight like porcupine- 
quills." I have do doubt at all but that unfortunate 
man saw, just as his spirit was leaving the body, the 
awful hell into which he was about to plunge. 

Sow cards ; the harvest will be gamblers. Dr. Hol- 
land, the author of many excellent books, says : "Card- 
playing is the universal resort of the starved intellect. 
Culture may embellish, but can never dignify card-play- 
ing. I have this moment ringing in my ears the dying 
injunction of my father's early friend: 'Keep your son 
from cards. Over them I have murdered time and lost 
heaven.' " 



CoAi.$ ^^oM the; Ai.tar. 39 

Our words and acts are seed. Holy Ghost, burn 
this thought into the hearts of all who shall read these 
pages ! 

Rev. E. Davies, of Illinois, gives an account of an 
infidel who had spent his life in disseminating his infidel 
doctrines. Wherever he could influence a young man 
to doubt the Bible he did so. He took delight in shak- 
ing men's faith in the inspiration of the Scriptures. He 
would sneer at the Bible, sneer at ministers, sneer at 
Christians, sneer at the Church. This was the kind of 
seed that he sowed while living. What was the harvest ? 
Mr. Davies tells us. When that man lay on his dying 
bed he said to friends who stood by his bedside: ''I am 
damned, infinitely damned. I feel as if I were in a globe 
of fire, and that it is pressing upon me on every side. 
To live is hell; to die is a thousand times worse. It is 
too late to pray. My doom is sealed.'' In this awful 
state he died. He sowed the wind ; he reaped the whirl- 
wind. 

David Hume had a most excellent Christian mother, 
and he determined to overthrow her religion. He suc- 
ceeded. One day a postman handed him a letter. He 
opened it. It was from his mother. She said: ''I am 
dying, and your philosophy gives me no comfort. I am 
in great sorrow. Come to me and comfort me, my son 
David." David Hume can never undo the wrong done 
his mother. His awful deeds will echo in eternity, and 
his guilty conscience, with its scorpion stings, will lash 
him forever. 

There is an old Eastern fable that tells of a cele- 
brated slave by the name of Luckman. His master told 
him to go and sow wheat in a certain field. Truckman 
sowed oats instead of wheat. One day the master went 



40 CoAi.s i^ROM. the: Ai,tar. 

out into the field, and he saw the green oats coming up. 
He called his slave and said: 

''I told you to sow wheat; why did you sow 
oats?" 

The slave answered : ''I sowed oats in the hope that 
the harvest would be wheat/' 

''Foolish man !'' said the master. ''Did you ever hear 
the like?" 

Luckman replied: "Yes, I have. You yourself are 
sowing a Hfe of sin, and expect to reap heaven. I 
thought, if this were true, I might sow oats and the 
harvest would be wheat." 

The master felt keenly the rebuke, but at the same 
time admired the sagacity of the slave. So ashamed 
was he of himself, and so astonished at the wisdom of 
the slave, that he gave Luckman his freedom. The har- 
vest will be like the seed sown. What kind of seed are 
you sowing? 

Well, if you have been sowing bad seed, by your acts 
and words during all the past, and will stop now, and 
from this time on sow good seed, the harvest may yet 
be grand and glorious. 

One night a man, staggering through the streets of 
Chicago, noticed the people entering a large, lighted 
building. Ignorant that it was the Tabernacle, wherein 
Moody and Sankey were holding religious meetings, 
he staggered in and sat down near one of the posts 
which supported the roof. In a sort of drunken stupor 
he leaned his head against the post. Something roused 
him. The happy faces of the people disturbed him. 
"This is no place for me," he said to himself, and arose 
to go out. Just then Mr. Moody gave out the hymn, 
"What shall the harvest be?" The first strain arrested 



CoAI.S I^ROM the: A1.TAR. 41 

the man's attention. He sat down and listened. With 
a thrill of emotion he heard the lines — 

"Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, 
Sowing the seed of eternal shame.'* 

''That 's me r he said to himself. ''That 's what I 
have been doing, 'sowing the seed of a tarnished name.' 
My name is gone, and now I am sowing the seed of 
eternal shame !'' He was so disturbed that, as soon as 
the singing ended he went out, determined to drown out 
those convicting lines with rum. He entered a saloon, 
called for a drink, took the glass in his hand, then sat it 
down, left the saloon, and ran home. The next day 
found him at the Tabernacle. He told his experience. 
Said he: "Last night when Mr. Moody announced the 
hymn, 'What shall the harvest be?' I felt I was a lost 
man. I left the Tabernacle, ran into a saloon, called 
for a glass of liquor, took it in my hand, and was about 
to drink it. Just then I happened to look up, and I 
saw, in blazing characters on the ceiling, 'What shall 
the harvest be ?' I turned, and on the wall of the saloon 
I saw in burning characters the same words, 'What shall 
the harvest be?' I ran home, and all night, as I tossed 
to and fro on my bed, I saw on the walls of the room, 
'What shall the harvest be?'" They prayed with him, 
and he was converted. Then he became a great soul- 
winner. That man will have a glorious harvest. 

Some years ago a minister was called to see a little 
girl seven years old, who was dying. She lived in a 
back street. When the minister got there a woman 
showed him where the child was, and he sat down to 
talk with her. 

"What do you want, darhng?" 



4^ Coals from xhe: Ai.tar. 

"Well, sir, I wanted to see you before I died." 

"Are you dying?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Would you not like to get well again ?" 

"I hope not, sir." 

"Why not?" 

"O sir, ever since I became a Christian I have been 
trying to bring father to church, and he won't come; 
and I think if I die — you will bury me, won't you ?" 

"Yes, darHng." 

"Yes, I have been thinking if I die, father must come 
to the funeral ; then you will be able to preach the gos- 
pel to him, and I should be willing to die six times over 
for him to hear the gospel once." 

She died, as she expected, and just before the time 
she was to be buried, the minister was himself taken 
sick, and could not attend the funeral. But some time 
after a rough-looking man called upon him, and held 
out his hand. 

"You do n't know me ?" 

"No, I don't." 

"I am the father of Mary — the father she died for. 
I heard as how she said she would die for me six times 
if I coi\ld hear the gospel once. It nearly broke my 
heart. Now I want to join the inquirers' class." 

He did join, and became a true friend of Christ. 
That little girl will have a glorious harvest. With a 
father, saved through her instrumentality, she will walk 
forever the plains of light and glory. Not a sigh, not 
a tear, not a sorrow will ever mar or dim her eternal 
glory and bliss. 

"He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit 
reap life everlasting." What a glorious promise this ! 
We begin to reap here some of the harvest of the good 



1 



CoAl.S FROM THE AWAR. 43 

seed sown. The harvest of the good will be beautiful, 
grand, glorious. 

I never shall forget the triumphant death of one of 
my first converts. On the second circuit I traveled in 
Indiana God gave us a glorious revival. In two weeks 
seventy souls were converted. The converts ranged 
from Httle children to gray-haired fathers and mothers. 
A father and mother, about sixty years old, were con- 
verted, with their three sons and one daughter. Ten 
months afterwards, Martha, the daughter, was stricken 
down with that fell destroyer, typhoid fever, from which 
she never recovered. Her sickness was characterized 
by patience, resignation, and great joy. The last visit 
we made we found her very near death's door. She had 
not spoken for twenty-four hours, and the power of 
speech seemed forever gone. For some time she had 
been delirious. We knelt down by her bedside and 
prayed, and as we prayed, 

''Heaven came down our souls to greet, 
And glory crowned the mercy-seat.'* 

When we arose, she broke forth in a clear, sweet, heav- 
enly voice, and sang: 

''When I can read my title clear 
To mansions in the skies, 
I '11 bid farewell to every fear, 
And wipe my weeping eyes." 

She sang the hymn through, and in a few minutes 
afterwards her pure spirit went up to join the angelic 
throng. 

In 1862 I had the privilege of witnessing another 
most triumphant departure from earth. I stood for a 



44 C0AI,S FROM THE AWAR. 

little while in the antechamber of the skies. The poet 
has truthfully said: 

"The chamber where the good man meets his fate 
Is privileged beyond the common walks 
Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven." 

On Saturday afternoon I went out to hold a quar- 
terly-meeting at Union, not far from Nebraska City. 
I reached Brother Beatty's, where the meeting was to 
be held, at two o'clock. Before entering the house a 
friend said to me, 'Xaura Beatty is lying very low with 
fever, and wishes to see you as soon as possible.'' She 
was at her sister's, about two miles away. I said to my 
friend, "I will go and see her as soon as the afternoon 
services are over.'' The services ended, I hurried over 
to where she was, and on entering the room felt, it 
seemed, as Jacob did at Bethel when he said, "Surely. 
the Lord is in this place." On her face rested a sweet, 
heavenly smile. The room was pervaded with a most 
hallowed atmosphere. The fragrance of the skies had 
been wafted to that humble prairie hom^; it was good 
to be there. She made every one in the room promise 
to meet her in heaven ; then she sent for neighbors and 
friends, that she might talk with them touching their 
soul's salvation. She spoke of the beauties and glories 
of heaven, glimpses of which she had seen. Just before 
her happy spirit took its upward and eternal flight, she 
exclaimed in an ecstasy of joy: '*The angels are coming; 
do n't you see them ? O how beautiful ! There is 
mother with them ! And there is Jesus, my Savior." 
And shortly after, her enraptured spirit joined the heav- 
enly throng. How these wonderful scenes speak, in 
language that can not be misunderstood, of heaven, the 
eternal *'home of the soul !" 



Coals i^rom the Altar. 45 

Then there is the eternal harvest the good will reap 
beyond the stars. What a harvest Mr. Moody will 
have ! What a harvest Thomas Harrison, WilHam Tay- 
lor, and all who have spent their Hves sowing good seed, 
will have ! I have often thought of the abundant har- 
vest of John Wesley. For nearly seventy years he 
wrote, preached, labored, and suffered to make men 
better. He is now harvesting some of his fruit, and the 
harvest will go on forever. 

Once more we ask, ''What shall the harvest be?" 
Holy Spirit, burn this question into every heart : "What 
shall the harvest be?" Shall it be one of joy, or one 
of sorrow; one of pain, or one of pleasure; one of 
triumph, or one of remorse? Shall it be heaven, or 
shall it be hell? Remember, the harvest will be of the 
same nature as the seed. You will reap what you sow. 

''Sowing the seed by the daylight fair, 
Sowing the seed by the noontide glare; 
Sowing the seed by the fading light, 
Sowing the seed in the solemn night: 
O, what shall the harvest be? 

Sowing the seed by the wayside high. 
Sowing the seed on the rocks to die; 
Sowing the seed where the thorns will spoil, 
Sowing the seed in the fertile soil: 
O, what shall the harvest be? 

Sowing the seed of a lingering pain, 
Sowing the seed of a maddened brain; 
Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, 
Sowing the seed of eternal shame: 
O, what shall the harvest be?" 



Chapter IV. 

TIME TO SEEK GOD. 

'*It is time to seek the Lord." — HosEA x, 12. 

In the days of the Prophet Hosea, seven hundred 
and forty years before the Christian era, the IsraeHtes 
had sinned ; they had sinned greatly ; they had sinned 
against light and knowledge, against God and high 
heaven. They had wandered far away from the Al- 
mighty, and had become gross idolaters. Hosea did 
not prophesy smooth things unto them. He was not 
silver-tongued. He made no attempt to whitewash 
their sins or hide their deformities. He poured forth 
upon them a torrent of burning truths. ''Ye have 
plowed wickedness," and what has been the result? 
"Ye have reaped iniquity." ''Ye have lied," and what 
has been the result of your lies? "Ye have eaten the 
fruit of lies." "Ye have sown the wind, and ye shall 
reap the whirlwind." (Hosea viii, 7.) National, fam- 
ily, personal disasters came upon them for their wicked- 
ness. 

The results of sin are the same to-day as they were 
twenty-six hundred years ago. Sin always has a reflex 
influence. Commit a sin of any kind, and it will come 
back to you in a form of evil. Lie, and sooner or later 
you will reap the bitter fruit of that lie. Deceive, and 

46 



CoAIvS I^ROM TH^ AWAR. 47 

as sure as the sun shines in the heavens, deception, with 
all its brood of evils, will overtake you. Deal dishon- 
estly, and you will feel keenly the rebound. Sooner or 
later you will suffer for every sin committed. If you go 
on sinning until death snaps the brittle thread of life, 
and you drop into hell, conscience, with its scorpion 
stings, will lash the soul forever. ''There the worm 
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 

If you have been sinning, it is time to stop. ''It is 
time to seek the Lord." It is time to seek God, because 
you have sinned long enough. Sin never benefits. It 
is always and everywhere an injury. The longer you 
sin, the greater the injury you do yourself; therefore, 
you have sinned long enough; you have been injuring 
yourself long enough. It is time to stop. 

I. It is time to seek the Lord, because of the person 
against whom you have sinned. 

In sinning, whom do you offend? God, your best 
Friend, your Creator, your Redeemer, your Preserver; 
God, who has never wronged you, has nev^r in any 
way harmed you, but has always been kind and good 
to you. From your infancy to the present, He has 
lavished blessings upon you without number. It is time 
to quit offending the best Friend you ever had, or ever 
can have in this or any other world. 

II. It is time to seek God, because of the harden- 
ing tendency of sin. 

Sin hardens the heart and sears the conscience. The 
longer a man sins, the harder the heart becomes. Sin, 
if persisted in, has a lulling, a soothing effect. So, by 
long continuance in sin, a man finally reaches the point 
where he thinks he is not very bad, after all. He may 



48 Coals i^rom the Altar. 

be low, he may be the vilest of the vile; but somehow 
he has reached the place where he does not realize his 
awful condition. A man does not become profane at 
once ; he becomes so by degrees. A very profane man 
said: ''I remember the first oath I ever uttered. When 
I uttered it, I was startled. I trembled all over. I 
thought I should drop into hell the next moment. But 
now I can use an oath in every sentence I speak with- 
out feeling any compunction of conscience whatever. 
The fact is, I swear all the time without knowing it." 
The profanity demon had lulled him, and left him asleep 
in his sin. 

A man does not become a drunkard at once. The 
man whose appetite has gotten the complete mastery 
of him never dreamed, when he took the first glass, 
that he would ever become a drunkard. And if you 
had told him then that he would, he would have laughed 
you to scorn. He would have said: ''I am a man. I 
can control my appetite. I can drink, or I can let it 
alone." But that first glass called for the second, the 
second the third, the third the fourth, the fourth the 
fifth, and every glass he drank the demand for another 
became more and more powerful, and before he was 
aware of it the coils of the' still were wrapped so tightly 
around him that no human power could possibly free 
him. 

The liquor-dealers of this Nation know well the 
power of appetite ; hence they are working hard to 
create appetite for their wares. 

A gentleman in Ohio dropped into a Liquor-dealers* 
Convention. One of the officers of the Convention was 
making a speech. Among other things he said : "Gen- 
tlemen, the success of our business depends upon the 
creation of appetite. Men who now drink liquor will, 



CoAIvS P^ROM the: AWAR. 49 

like other men, die, and if no new appetite is created 
our counters will be empty as well as our coffers. The 
open field for the creation of appetite is among the 
boys. Here is the field for missionary work. Nickels 
spent in treating the boys will, when the appetite is 
created, come back to our tills in dollars. By all means 
create appetite.'' Can anything be more diabolical than 
that? When Rev. George R. Stewart was preaching 
in Kentucky one Sabbath, an intelligent lady came 
walking down the aisle wringing her hands and weep- 
ing bitterly. When she reached the altar, just in front 
of the pulpit she exclaimed, ''Mr. Stewart ! Mr. Stewart ! 
the saloons have got my boy!'' The preacher stopped 
for a moment. His heart ached, and the congregation 
was greatly moved. Then said the preacher: "How 
many mothers here to-day can, from experience, sym- 
pathize with this mother? All who can, raise your 
hands." Hands went up all over the congregation. 
Some of them were in kid gloves, some of them were 
pale white hands, and some of them bore the marks of 
labor and toil. The minister continued: ''Gentlemen 
of Kentucky, I do not know what kind of stuff you are 
made of, but I am of that kind that will do all I can 
to help these mothers save their boys from the clutches 
of the saloon." 

It is estimated that one family out of six in every 
generation in Christian America must furnish a boy 
to be sacrificed on the saloon altar. Shall he be your 
boy or my boy? O whose boy shall he be? He will 
be somebody's boy ; a boy whose parents loved him 
as deeply and tenderly as you love your boy. One hun- 
dred thousand go down to drunkard's graves every 
year. O the devastation of the saloon ! A man does 
not become a murderer at once. He begins by com- 



50 CoAIvS I^ROM TH^ AlTAR. 

mittmg a very small crime; this leads to the" com- 
mission of another; and this in turn to another, until 
at length he can use the assassin's knife as coolly and 
deliberately as you can sit down and eat your meal at 
the table. A man was hung at Minden, Nebraska, a 
few years ago, for murder. He had murdered a num- 
ber of persons at different times. The last crime com- 
mitted was the murder of a whole family. After he was 
tried and sentenced to be hung, he was taken to the 
penitentiary at Lincoln for safekeeping until the day 
of execution. While there, I visited him twice. Among 
other things I said to him, ''Mr. Richards, will you 
tell me the first step you took in your downward 
career?'' He answered me very promptly: ''Yes, sir. 
Playing cards in my father's parlor for amusement. 
That led me to desire to play cards for money. Then 
I became a gambler, fell into vile company, went from 
bad to worse, until finally I committed the crime for 
which I am now under sentence of death." Playing 
cards for amusement in his own father's parlor was the 
first step that started Mr. Richards whirling down the 
inclined plane to ruin. Do not say there is no harm in 
your children playing cards in the home simply for 
amusement. That is where gamblers and murderers 
are made. 

The most alarming tendency of the human race 
to-day is the downward drift. Men all around us — 
the young, the middle-aged, and the old — are drifting, 
drifting with fearful rapidity toward the rocks of de- 
spair. They are like the toboggan. At first it starts 
slowly, but the farther it goes, the faster it goes. A 
boat in the Niagara River may start very slowly at 
first; but it soon gets into the suck, and then no hu- 
man power can stop it; with lightning speed it sweeps 



CoAIvS ^ROM TH^ Al^TAR. 5 1 

over the foaming cataract, and is dashed to pieces. A 
young man who yields to the vices of the age will soon 
find himself in the suck, and then no human power can 
save him. He will be at the bottom in a very short 
time. 

Graduates of Harvard, Yale, and other universities 
are found throughout the wild West, and some of them 
are coarse, ugly, horribly profane, and physically low 
in their tastes. It is estimated that there are five hun- 
dred cowboys on the frontier that are graduates of 
first-class Eastern universities. Do n't imagine that 
these cowboys out on the plains are all ignorant, 
stupid fellows. Many of them are bright, keen, and 
the ripest scholars. They yielded to sin and its evil 
influences, and they reached the lowest level in a very 
short time. ''There is no descent so low as that which 
drops from the greatest height." 

A stage-driver in a Western Territory was on his 
death-bed. He kept moving his foot from one side 
of the bed to the other. His wife said to him, ''What 
is the matter?" "O," said he, "I am on an awful 
down-grade, and I can't get my foot on the brake." 
If you continue in sin, in a little while you will find 
yourself on the awful down-grade, with no power what- 
ever to stop. Better stop now, before you reach the 
awful down-grade, when it will be impossible for you 
to stop. "It is time to seek the Lord." 

III. It is time to seek the Lord, because of your 
influence on others. 

"No man liveth unto himself, and no man dicth 
unto himself." We are exerting an influence every day 
for good or for evil that will tell upon the destinies of 
men forever. 



52 CoAIvS I^ROM the: Ai^TAR. 

A colonel on the field of battle was overwhelmed 
with the fear of death. He was wonderfully impressed 
with the steadiness of several Christian soldiers when 
under fire, especially with a corporal, who, after several 
standard-bearers had been shot down, seized the flag- 
staff, and, as he bore it to immediate death, calmly 
said to a comrade, ''If I fall, tell my dear wife that I 
die with a good hope in Christ, glad to give my life 
for my country/' ''I can never forget that,'' said the 
colonel. ''Never had anything influenced me like that. 
I want to become a Christian." He gave his heart to 
God, and made a pubHc profession of the religion of 
the Lord Jesus. 

Our influence, — what a wonderful thing it is ! What 
a mighty power we carry with us ! This mighty power 
we can't shake oflf; we can't get rid of it. It clings to 
us, and will cling to us forever. Drop a pebble in the 
center of a lake, and it starts circling waves that widen 
and will roll on, and on, until they break upon the dis- 
tant shore. So, by our words and acts and looks, we 
start waves of influence, for good or evil, that will roll 
on forever. 

A woman who had circulated a slanderous report 
about a neighbor made a confession to her priest of 
what she had done. He gave her a ripe thistle-pod, 
and told her to go and scatter the seeds by the way- 
side. She did so, and then went back to the priest, and 
told him that she had obeyed his order. "Now," said 
the priest, "go back and gather up the scattered seeds 
and bring them to me." Overwhelmed with amaze- 
ment, she said : "That is an utter impossibility. I scat- 
tered them by the wayside, and the wind has carried 
them I know not where. I never can find them." Said 
the priest, "Neither can you stop the evil influence 



CoAI.S FROM the: Ai.TAR. 53 

of the false report you have circulated about your 
neighbor/' 

A dying man whose life had been spent in sin said, 
*'0 that my influence could be gathered up and buried 
with me!'' But that was impossible. His body might 
be shrouded, and coffined, and buried, but not his in- 
fluence. It walks the earth to-day like a raging pesti- 
lence, and will go on until arrested by the hand of the 
Almighty. Our influence is a light to illume or a tem- 
pest to destroy. 

IV. It is time to seek the Lord, because of the final 
results of sin. The power of sin is terrible in its re- 
sults. Sin destroys faith; it destroys love, the most 
beautiful thing in the world; it destroys hope; it de- 
stroys the body; it destroys the soul. ''What is a man 
profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul?" ''There the worm dieth not and the fire 
is not quenched." Hell, therefore, is eternal. Our lost 
friends are lost forever. Lost parents are lost forever ; 
lost children are lost forever; lost husbands are lost 
forever; lost wives are lost forever. 

When I was attending school at Greencastle, In- 
diana, in 1854, two men got into a quarrel in a drug- 
store, and one stabbed the other. I saw the poor man 
just after he fell. He lay upon the floor, weltering in 
his own blood. He had been a Christian, but was a 
backslider, and very wicked. His wife was a devoted 
Christian. As he lay there, life rapidly ebbing away, 
he said, "Send for my wife ; I want to see her once 
more." A messenger was dispatched. In a little while 
she was there, and I saw her fall upon her knees by 
the side of her dying husband and utter a piercing cry 
that I never shall forget. "O who did it? Who killed 



54 Coals from thk Altar. 

my husband?'' The dying man took his wife by the 
hand, and uttered but one sentence; that sentence he 
repeated over and over again, as he grew weaker and 
weaker, until in a faint whisper the w^ords died aw^ay 
upon his expiring lips. That sentence w^as, "Farewell 
forever! Farewell forever!" He knew that the sepa- 
ration was an eternal separation. O the sad thought ! 
Lost friends are lost forever. 

Dr. Chalmers once called upon one of his parish- 
ioners, and found her in great trouble. On inquiry, he 
learned that she was in great distress of mind because 
of an unconverted daughter. Said she, 'I talk to her 
all the time about religion, but I can't get her to be- 
come a Christian." 

''Suppose you turn your daughter over to me," said 
the Doctor. 

"All right," said the mother. 

In a little w^hile the daughter came in, and the 
mother rose and left the room. The Doctor said to her: 

"Is not your mother giving you a great deal of 
trouble by constantly talking to you about religion? 
Suppose I say to her, *Do not say one word to your 
daughter about religion for one year.' " 

"Well," said the girl, "I might die before the end 
of one year." 

"True," said the Doctor, "you might. Suppose I 
say to your mother, 'Do not say one word to your 
daughter about religion for six months.' " 

She studied for a moment, and then said: 

"I might die before the end of six months." 

"That is so," said the Doctor, "life is very uncer- 
tain. Suppose I say to your mother, 'Do not say one 
word to your daughter about religion for three 
months.' " 



CoAIvS I^ROM THE AWAR. 55 

Again she replied thoughtfully: 

''I might die before the end of three months." 

"Yes," said the Doctor, ''you may die before to- 
morrow morning. Do n't you think you had better 
give your heart to God now, and become a Christian?" 

''I expect I had," said the girl. 

''Well," said the Doctor, "get right down upon your 
knees." 

She fell upon her knees at once, and the Doctor 
knelt and prayed, and, while he prayed, salvation came 
to her soul, and she arose rejoicing in a Savior's par- 
doning love. 

My unconverted friend, you may die before the end 
of this year ; you may die before the end of six months ; 
you may die before the end of three months. Ah ! you 
may die before to-morrow's sun rises. Do n't you 
think you had better give your heart to God now? 
"Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salva- 
tion." It is time now to seek the Lord. 



Chapter V. 
GOD'S INFINITE LOVE. 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life." — John hi, i6. 

WiJ come to you with the old, old story of God's 
infinite love manifested to the children of men in 
the gift of His Son for the redemption of the world. 
This old, old story is always new, and always fresh, 
and always inspiring. The most beautiful thought in 
the world is love. There is no theme in all the wide 
realm of knowledge or fancy on which the mind can 
muse so inspiring, so uplifting, and that brings to the 
heart such perfect bliss, as love. We never tire hear- 
ing of love, or reading of love, or talking of love, or 
thinking of love. Did you ever love? Were you ever 
loved? Then you know something of the rapture of 
love ; a bliss, a joy, a rapture no language can describe. 

Henry Drummond says, ''The greatest thing in the 
world is love." Eloquence is a great thing; the power 
to sway an audience at will. We have seen a great 
audience swayed under the power of the gifted orator, 
just as the trees of the forest are swayed in the midst 
of a mighty tempest. And yet, as great as eloquence 
is, love is greater. Paul says, ''Though I speak with 

S6 



COAI.S FROM THE AWAR, 57 

the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I 
am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal/' 

Prophecy is a great thing: the power to foretell 
future events. But love is greater than prophecy. 
''Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand 
all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not love, I 
am nothing.'' 

Faith is a great thing. We have all read of the 
wonderful achievements and victories of faith. And 
yet as great as faith is, love is greater. ''Though I 
have all faith, so that I could remove mountains and 
have not love, I am nothing." 

Love is greater than martyrdom. "Though I give 
my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth 
me nothing." (i Cor. xiii, 3.) 

John says : "All that is in the world, the lust of the 
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of Hfe, is 
not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world 
passeth away." (i John ii, i6.) All these things will 
pass away. But when they are all gone, there will be 
one thing left, and that is love. 

Love is not only the greatest thing in this world, 
but it is the greatest thing in all other worlds. John 
in his Epistle says, "God is love." (i John iv, 8.) Love 
is God's nature. The essence of the Almighty is love. 
God loves because it is His nature to love. It is the 
element of His being. He can't help but love. God 
loves to be patient with men, to wait for them, to pour 
His benevolence upon them, because that is His 
nature. 

Why does the musician sing? Because it is the very 
nature of his organization to sing. His mind loves 
music, and it is as natural for him to sing as it is to 
breathe. 



58 CoAI.S FROM TH^ AI.TAR. 

Why does the painter love to paint ? Because paint- 
ing is congenial to his organic nature. 

Why does the orator feel the joys of speech? Be- 
cause his whole nature is attuned to that operation. 

Why is it, when you go into some homes that you 
see the children gathered around the aged grand- 
mother, as she sits in her chair with her frilled cap, as 
white as snow on her head, and her spectacles lifted 
upon her brow? Why is it that the children are all 
drawn to her? Because she makes them happy. Why 
does she make them happy? Because her thoughts 
are all serene. She does not do it on purpose. She 
just pours out of herself the music of harmony, and it 
fills the child with joy. It is her nature to do so. 

Why do the birds sing? It is their nature to sing. 
Why do the flowers bloom? It is their nature to 
bloom. Why does the sun shine? It is his nature 
to shine. 

And why does God love? Because it is His nature 
to love. Why is He patient? Because it is His nature 
to be patient. Why is He forgiving? Because that is 
His nature. Why does He love you, though you are 
unworthy of His love? Because that is just the way 
the mind of God acts. And that this might be made 
manifest. He made the most sublime evidence of it in 
the gift of His Son, who came down into this world 
to live, and love, and suffer, and die for our salvation. 

We sometimes make a great mistake by thinking 
we must do something to make God love us. We begin 
to look at ourselves, the little good we have done, our 
weak faith, our blunders, our infirmities, our mistakes 
and shortcomings, and with discouraged hearts we cry 
out, ''God never can love such a faithless, blundering, 



CoAI.S ^ROM THD AlvTAR, 59 

sinful person as I am." How many make this mistake ! 
It is a snare of the devil to keep us from going up 
to the loftiest heights of salvation. 

Two little boys were playing together. One said 
to the other, ''We must be good, or father won't love 
us." The father overheard the remark, and he called 
the boy to his side and said: 

**Do you know what you have just said?" 

'*Yes, sir," said the boy. 

*'Well," said the father, "it is not true, my boy, — 
not a bit true." 

''Isn't it?" said the little fellow, very much sur- 
prised. 

"No," said the father, "it 's far from the truth." 

"But you won't love us if we are not good, will 
you?" said the boy. 

"Yes," said the father. "I can't help loving you. 
I shall love you for ever and ever, because I can't help 
it. When you are good, I love you with a love that 
makes me glad ; and when you are not good, I love you 
with a love that hurts me; but I can't help loving you, 
because I am your father." 

Well, God is our Father. And He loves us because 
He is our Father, and He can't help it. 

I. God's love is great. 

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are 
My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts 
than your thoughts." (Isa. Iv, 9.) 

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so is 
God's love higher than man's love. Human love is 
finite; Divine love is infinite. God has not only re- 
vealed Himself unto us as a God of love ; He has not 



6o COAI.S I^ROM THE AWAR. 

only declared that His very essence is love, but He 

has proved to the world, beyond even the shadow of 
a doubt, this great fact. He has given to the world 
a manifestation of His love so grand, so wonderful, 
so overwhelmingly glorious, that it will stand out be- 
fore men and angels, not only through all time, but 
through all the ages of eternity. That manifestation 
was in the gift of His Son to die, that our ruined race 
might be lifted up out of sin and eternally saved. 

Paul says: ''For scarcely for a righteous man will 
one die ; yet peradventure for a good man some would 
even dare to die." (Rom. v, 7.) The best we can ex- 
pect from an earthly friend is, that he will give his Hfe 
to save his friend. Christ says, ''Greater love hath no 
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his 
friends." (John xv, 13.) This is the utmost extent of 
human love. It never goes beyond this. But God's 
love sweeps infinitely beyond all human love. God 
becomes incarnate, and dies, not for His friends, but 
for His enemies. "Herein is love, not that we loved 
God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be 
the propitiation for our sins." (John iv, 10.) 

"He saw us ruined by the fall; 
He loved us notwithstanding all." 

"Down from the shining seats above 
With joyful haste He sped, 
Entered the grave in mortal flesh, 
And dwelt among the dead. 

O for such love let rocks and hills 

Their lasting silence break. 
And all harmonious human tongues 

The Savior's praises speak." 



CoAIvS FROM THE) AWAR. 6l 

Guthrie, the eloquent divine, draws this picture of 
God's love in redemption: ''Suppose a man lying in 
prison under sentence of death. The gallows and death 
are before him. He sends to the king a petition for 
pardon. He awaits the answer with anxious suspense. 
One day his ears catch rapid steps approaching his 
door — they stop. The bolts are drawn, the key is 
turned, the door opens, and a messenger stands before 
him. The criminal turns ashy white, and with breath- 
less silence listens to hear his fate. The messenger 
says, 'The king pities the criminal, but can not pardon 
the crime.' The poor criminal wrings his hands, his 
brain reels, and he cries out, 'Then there is no hope ; I 
must die.' The messenger draws near, and, laying his 
hand kindly on the poor fellow's shoulder, tells him 
that there is one way by which he may yet escape. If 
the king's son would change places with him, put these 
fetters on his own hands, and die in his place, that 
would satisfy justice and set him free. The king give 
up his son? The son, the prince royal, the heir of this 
great kingdom consent to die for a poor, guilty wretch 
like me? If there is no hope but this, then there is 
no hope at all. But imagine, if you can, his astonish- 
ment and the joy that thrills his heart when that mes- 
senger says to him : 'I am the king's son. It is my 
own wish and my father's will that I should die for you. 
For this purpose am I come. For this purpose I left 
the palace, and have sought you in your dreary prison. 
Take the pardon, give me the fetters, the door opens, 
you are free.' Such love as that has never been known 
in all our world's history." 

But just such love as that was manifested by God 
in the gift of His only begotten Son. It was the Son's 
wish and the Father's will that Jesus should die in 



62 Coals i^rom the: Ai.tar. 

our stead. He takes our place, He takes our man- 
acles, He dies in our place, the prison door opens, and 
the portals of glory fly wide open for a lost world. 

A lunatic was taken from his cell. On the wall of 
his cell were found these words : 

''Could I with ink the ocean fill, 
Were every blade of grass a quill, 
And every man a scribe by trade, 
To write the love of God to man 

Would drain the ocean dry; 
Nor v^ould the scroll contain the whole, 

Though stretched from sky to sky." 

Again : the greatness of God's love is seen in the 
forgiveness of sin. ''I will forgive their iniquity, and I 
will remember their sin no more." (Jer. xxxi, 34.) 

God does not forgive as man does. Men some- 
times say, ''I can forgive, but I can't forget." I am 
so glad that God does not forgive in that way. God 
forgives, and then He forgets. He remembers our sins 
no more forever. Our pardoned sins are as though 
they never had been. Glory be to God for ever and 
ever! 

On the 4th day of March, 1853, God for Christ's 
sake forgave all my sins. Shall I ever forget that 
day? Never. The period of my conversion is fresher 
in my mind to-day than ever. The scenes of that won- 
derful event stand out before me more vividly now 
than ever. The greatness of that wonderful work be- 
comes more and more luminous as the years go by. 
That was the day of all days to me, — the day of my 
conversion to God. No event in all the history of my 
life is so great, so grand, so glorious as that. God 
then took me into His family, adopted me as His child, 



C0AI.S i^ROM the: AIvTAR. 63 

gave me the kiss of pardon, and placed His signet-ring 
upon my hand. Then we sang a new song, a song we 
had never sung before : 

''My God IS reconciled; 
His pardoning voice I hear; 
He owns me for His child; 

I can no longer fear; 
With confidence I now draw nigh, 
And, 'Father, Abba, Father,' cry." 

Another phase of God's love is seen in the lofty 
spiritual height to which He promises to Hft His chil- 
dren. This high plane is brought clearly to view in 
Paul's profound prayer for the Church at Ephesus : 
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that 
ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able 
to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and 
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love 
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be 
filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph. iii, 17-19.) 
In this wonderful prayer we have an idea of what God 
is willing to do for every one of His trusting children. 
He offers first to pardon, then to sanctify, then to fill 
with all the fullness of God. 

God's dispensations all along the past have been 
graded. Each preceding dispensation has been better 
than the one last past. The world had first the Patri- 
archal, then the Mosaic, then the Prophetic, and then 
the Gospel Dispensation. Each new dispensation be- 
came better, brighter, and more and more luminous. 
So the steps of Divine grace are graded, one step rising 
above another, higher, and higher, and higher. First 
pardon, then purity, then grace upon grace. Then on, 
and up, and out through all eternity. If we live up to 
the light God gives us, there will be a constant unfold- 



64 CoAIvS F'ROM THE A1.TAR. 

ing — an opening out into newer, richer, grander experi- 
ences forever. 

A benevolent person gave Rowland Hill a hundred 
pounds to give to a poor minister, and, thinking it too 
much to send him all at once, Mr. Hill forwarded five 
pounds with simply these words in the envelope, ''More 
to follow.'' In a few days he sent another five pounds 
with the same words, ''More to follow." In a day or 
two after came a third, then a fourth, then a fifth, with 
the same words, "More to follow/' and the surprised 
minister became familiar with the cheering words, 
"More to follow." 

Every blessing that comes to us from the Almighty 
comes with the same cheering words, "More to fol- 
low." "I will forgive all your sins, but there is more 
to follow." "I will sanctify you wholly, but there is 
more to follow." "I will give you victory over every 
spiritual foe, but there is more to follow." "I will up- 
hold you in the hour of death, but there is more to 
follow." And when you land in glory, I will restore 
to you the loved ones that long ago slipped away from 
you, and with them, hand in hand, and soul inwrought 
with soul, you may walk and talk and rejoice, without 
a tear, or a sigh, or a sorrow to ever dim or mar your 
glory; but there is more to follow. And never, in all 
the ages to come, will we reach a point but what there 
will be more to follow. 

"More and more, more and more, 
Always more to follow." 

II. God's love is unchanging. It is the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and forever. Everything earthly is 
changing, but God remains the same from age to age. 
He says Himself, "I am the Lord, I change not." 
(Mai. iii, 6.) 



CoAI.S I^ROM the: AIvTAR. 65 

Love being God's nature, His very essence, love 
therefore, in Him, can not change. Human love is 
often fickle, but God's love never. Earthly friends are 
not always reliable, but the friendship of the Almighty 
can always be relied on. 

As long as you have plenty of money and are in 
prosperity, your earthly friends will cling to you. But 
let adversity come, and your money take wings and fly 
away, and your earthly friends may forsake you. If it 
is popular to be your friend, your friends will stand 
by you ; but if it is not, they may betray and forsake 
you. Of course, there are noble exceptions. There 
always have been, and always will be, friends like 
Damon and Pythias, and David and Jonathan, and such 
only are true friends. 

But God's love and friendship are unfaiHng. God 
never forsakes, never changes, never betrays. In the 
forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah God asks a question, and 
then answers it : ''Can a woman forget her suckling 
child, that she should not have compassion on the son 
of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not 
forget thee." Mothers have been known to forsake 
their children, wives their husbands, and husbands their 
wives, but God has never been known to forsake His 
children. All others may forsake, but God never will. 

Sinners sometimes think they are forsaken of God. 
But that is a mistake. God's love follows them down 
to the very last. As they go down in sin, step by step, 
lower and lower, if they would only listen they could 
hear the mild and pleading voice of God saying: ''As 
1 live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. 
Turn ye, turn ye, for why will you die?" 

A few years ago, at an Epworth League Conven- 
tion in Wahoo, I was royally entertained at the home 

5 



66 CoAI.S FROM the: AIvTAR. 

of Brother Steen. Mrs. Cassell, a daughter, whose 
home was in San Antonio, Texas, was spending the 
winter with her parents. She was a devoted Christian, 
and loved to talk on the subject of religion. The day 
before I left she said to me, ''Brother Davis, I want to 
tell you of the most wonderful conversion you ever 
heard of." ''All right. I shall be glad to hear it.'' 
Said she: "Two years ago our pastor was holding re- 
vival services in our little church in San Antonio. 
There was a madam who had the largest and finest 
mansion in the city, and she had just put on an ad- 
dition costing $8,000. The building throughout was 
furnished in grand style. Well, the madam came out 
one night to our meeting, just to make sport and have 
a gay time. She took a seat near the door. We had 
a wonderful meeting. The power of God filled the 
house. Near the close of the meeting she arose, pale 
as death, and, trembling all over, said, 'O, will the mem- 
bers of this Church pray for me?' The pastor assured 
her they would. She fell upon her knees in her pew, 
and in ten minutes was powerfully converted. Her con- 
version was so clear that it was manifest to everybody. 
Her face beamed with heavenly Hght. She went home, 
called her girls together, and told them that she had 
become a Christian, and from that time on she intended 
to live a diflferent Hfe, and all who would follow her 
and reform might remain, and she would see that they 
would never want for anything; but if they were not 
willing to give up sin, they must leave at once. The 
most of the girls left, only a few remained and changed 
their lives. Then she converted that fine mansion into 
a Rescue Home, and went to work rescuing the fallen. 
Every Thursday afternoon she had a general prayer- 
meeting, and the most powerful prayer-meetings I ever 



COAI.S P^ROM the: AIvTAR. 67 

attended in my life were in that mansion. She had a 
husband; but, of course, they were not Hving together. 
He kept a ranch up in the mountains. The secular 
papers gave an account of her conversion. They an- 
nounced in large head lines, 'Madam Blank converted, 
and her fine mansion converted into a Rescue Home, 
and given to the Methodist Episcopal Church.' One 
day the husband took up the daily paper, and read 
with interest and surprise the thrilling story of his 
wife's conversion. He took the first train, and, on 
reaching the city, went directly to his wife's mansion. 
She greeted him with a smile, took him into her sitting- 
room, and gave him an account of her marvelous con- 
version. Then she asked him to let her pray for him. 
He knelt down, and she' bowed at his side, and, with the 
open Bible, read and prayed for two hours, when he 
was just as powerfully converted as she herself had 
been. Then he paid ofif a large mortgage on the build- 
ing, and joined his wife in the rescue work. That 
woman and her husband are highly respected by every- 
body in San Antonio, and there are no two persons in 
all that region of the country that are doing more 
good than they are doing," 

That woman had been forsaken by her parents, for- 
saken by her relatives, forsaken by her husband, and 
was an outcast in society; but she was not forsaken 
by God. His love followed her, and the very moment 
she said, ''1 will quit sin and accept Christ," that very 
moment she was saved. O the wondrous love of God ! 
It is like an ocean, without a bottom or a shore. 
Hallelujah ! 

I know it is often said, *'God is too good to send 
any one to hell." God do n't send men to hell. He 
never did. He never will. But men send themselves 



68 CoAIvS ^ROM the: AIvTAR. 

there. God is doing all He possibly can to keep men 
out of hell. But God can't save men unless they re- 
pent and accept Christ as their Savior. ''Except ye 
repent, ye shall all Hkewise perish;" "Ye will not come 
unto Me that ye may have life." If men are lost, it 
is because they will not come unto Christ and be saved. 

During his first evangelistic tour through England, 
Mr. Moody became acquainted with a young man by 
the name of Moorehouse. The young man became 
very much attached to Mr. Moody, and one day said 
to him, ''Mr. Moody, when you go back to America, 
I want to go with you." Mr. Moody was not prepos- 
sessed with the young man's appearance, and did not 
care to have him return with him to America. So when 
he got ready to sail he said nothing about it to the 
young man. 

Some months after Mr. Moody reached home he 
received a letter from Mr. Moorehouse, saying, "I am 
in New York City, and will be in Chicago next week 
and will preach for you." The next week Mr. Moody 
was called away from home. He told the officers of 
his Church about the young man, and requested them 
to let him preach when he came. Mr. Moody reached 
home Saturday night. He was nervous and anxious 
to hear about Moorehouse. His wife said: "He is a 
splendid preacher. Everybody Hkes him." So Mr. 
Moody invited him to preach the next day. Mr. 
Moorehouse arose, and announced his text, third chap- 
ter of John, sixteenth verse: "God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life." A smile went all over the congregation. 
When they reached home Mr. Moody asked his wife 
why the people smiled when Mr. Moorehouse an- 



CoAI.S I^ROM THE AlvTAR. 69 

nounced his text. ''Why/' said she, ''that was the same 
text he preached from last night/' Mr. Moody was 
dehghted, and thought he had never heard a better 
sermon in his life. He invited the young man to preach 
the next night. The next night he arose and an- 
nounced his text, third chapter of John, sixteenth 
verse : "God so loved the world that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life.'' And for seven 
nights in succession he preached from the same text. 
Said Mr. Moody: "I never heard anything like it. 
God's love stood out before me in a light I never saw 
it before. It seemed to me there was nothing else in 
the whole Bible but God's love." 

The young man closed his last sermon by saying: 
"I have been trying to tell you for seven nights, now, 
how Christ loves you ; but I can not do it. If I could 
borrow Jacob's ladder and climb up to heaven, and 
could see Gabriel there, and ask him to tell me how 
much God loves me, he would only say: 'God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.' " It seems to me, as it did to Mr. 
Moorehouse, if men could only be convinced of God's 
infinite love for them the whole world would be saved. 

What influence should God's love have upon us? 

1. It ought to produce in our hearts gratitude. 
God's love so wonderfully manifested to us should 
make our whole lives a song of praise and thanks- 
giving. 

2. God's love for us should produce a willing obedi- 
ence to all His commands. Christ said to the Father, 
"I delight to do Thy will, O My God." (Psa. iv, 8.) 
It was the Savior's delight to leave His home in glory, 



70 CoAi.s i^ROM the: Awar. 

come down into this world, suffer and die, that the will 
of the Father might be accomplished, and a lost, stray- 
ing, fallen world rescued and brought back to God. 
The Father willingly gave His Son, the Son willingly 
came upon His mission of disinterested love and be- 
nevolence. 

My unconverted friend, all this was done for you. 
Should not this love — love unbounded, love unpar- 
alleled in all the wide world's history — be returned by 
a willing obedience to every one of the divine com- 
mands? God is now saying, ''Give me thy heart." 
'Xet the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, 
and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, 
for He will abundantly pardon.'' God is now saying, 
"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." Yield to these inspiring in- 
vitations ; make the surrender now. Take Christ now 
as your Savior, and the peace of God that passeth all 
understanding will flood your soul 



Chapter VI. 
THE PULPIT AND THE PEW. 

Our subject is ''The Pulpit and the Pew," and we 
have selected two texts. The first you will find in 
Ezekiel, third chapter and seventeenth verse. "Son 
of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house 
of Israel: therefore hear the word at My mouth, and 
give them warning from Me." The second you will 
find in Second Thessalonians, third chapter and first 
verse: ''Brethren, pray for us, that the word of the 
Lord may have free course, and be glorified." 

The minister of the gospel is a watchman. He is 
a watchman by Divine appointment. He receives his 
message direct from the Almighty, and delivers that 
message to the people. The members of the Church 
should pray that the word received from God and de- 
livered to them may have free course and be glorified. 

The visible Church of Christ on earth is a congre- 
gation of faithful men and women, in which the pure 
Word of God is preached and the sacraments duly ad- 
ministered. To constitute this Church, two things are 
absolutely necessary — an administrator and subjects. 
In every complete Church, therefore, there is a pulpit 
and there are pews — a minister and members. 

The minister has great and hallowed privileges ; the 
members of the Church have great and hallowed priv- 

71 



72 CoAI.S ^ROM the: AIvTAR. 

ileges as well. The minister has duties to perform; so 
also have the members. Grave and weighty respon- 
sibilities rest upon every man called of God to preach 
the gospel. I tremble when I think of the tremendous 
responsibilities resting upon me as a messenger of the 
Most High God. Just as grave and weighty respon- 
sibilities rest upon every member of the Church. The 
duties, the privileges, the responsibilities are no greater 
on the one hand than on the other. They rest with 
equal weight upon pastor and members. 

The two great elements of the Church's power are 
the pulpit and the pew. Let us look for a little while 
at these two great factors of moral power. 

I. Let us look at the pulpit. 

What should a minister of the gospel be? 

I. The minister should be converted. He should 
know with absolute certainty that his sins are all for- 
given. It is a sad and painful thought, yet nevertheless 
true, that there are ministers of the gospel in the pul- 
pits of the land that are not converted. So, we say, the 
minister should know, without even the shadow of a 
doubt, that he is saved from sin. Without this knowl- 
edge, the clear and indubitable evidence of his own 
salvation, he will not know how to sympathize with the 
unsaved all around him. But if he has this knowledge, 
his heart will go out in intense, earnest, longing desire 
for the salvation of others. And not only will his heart 
go out in intense desire for the salvation of others, but 
he will be ready to get down to right hard work, and 
make sacrifices in order to save them. 

I remember once to have read of a traveler who 
stood by the cages of some birds that were offered for 
sale. These birds ruffled their sunny plumage upon 



CoAivS F^ROM the: Ai.ta^. 73 

the wires, and struggled to get free. The traveler was 
wayworn and sunbrowned. He gazed for some time 
upon the captives, when tears started in his eyes. 
Turning to the owner, he asked the price of one, then 
paid it in strange gold, opened the door, and let the 
captive go. And thus he did with captive after cap- 
tive, till every bird was away to the skies, singing upon 
the wings of liberty. The crowd that had gathered 
around was amazed at his strange procedure and asked 
for an explanation. He replied, ''I was once myself 
a captive, and I know the sweets of liberty.'' 

The man who has been brought from moral dark- 
ness to spiritual light, from the power of sin and Satan 
unto God, has felt the serpent's fearful bite, and the 
awful agony of his venomous sting, and then on the 
other hand, by faith in Jesus Christ, has had the sting 
extracted, the fearful bite healed, and has the light, the 
peace, the liberty of a soul delivered from the thraldom 
of sin, — he only knows how to sympathize with those 
all around him in bondage to Satan. 

No angel in heaven is so well qualified to be a min- 
ister of the gospel as a redeemed and converted man. 
No wonder, then, that with burning enthusiasm and 
untiring zeal he goes forth to liberate the prisoner of 
sin; for ''he once was a captive, and he knows the 
sweets of liberty." 

2. A minister should be divinely called. 

God said to the Prophet Ezekiel, "I have made thee 
a watchman." The tribe of Levi was a tribe of priests 
by Divine appointment. The prophets were prophets 
by Divine appointment. The apostles, under the gospel 
dispensation, were apostles by Divine appointment. 
They were called, conunissioned, and sent forth by 
Christ to preach His gospel. And every true minister 



74 COAI.S FROM THE AWAR. 

of the gospel to-day is a minister by Divine appoint- 
ment. To be efficient he must be God-made. Colleges 
and universities can not make a minister. They may 
aid in qualifying him for his work, but they never can 
make a true minister. There are college-made preach- 
ers in many pulpits, but they are not soul-winners. 
Their churches are like ice-houses, and sinners in and 
all about them are dropping into hell. 

The inward impression is made upon the heart of 
the young man called of God to preach by the direct 
agency of the Holy Ghost. This is the first call. 

The second call is from the Church, and this is 
Divine as well as the first, for the Church is a Divine 
institution. So it sometimes occurs that, while the 
young man on whose heart the Divine impression has 
been made that he must preach is thinking of what 
is to be his life work, he is startled by having some 
good old member of the Church, deeply versed in 
Divine things, lay his hand on his shoulder and say, 
''Brother, do you not feel that God has a work for you 
to do?'' He looks up with surprise, and is ready to 
say, ''Why do you ask that question?'' Then he opens 
his mind, and makes the frank confession. The Church 
takes up his case, and authority is given him to preach. 
And then, Hke Isaiah, whose lips had been touched 
with the live coal from ofif the altar, he says to God 
and the Church, "Here am I ; send me." With fear 
and trembHng he enters the sacred desk, and through 
his feeble instrumentality souls are converted. He has 
now reached the third stage. He has three arguments, 
clear, strong, overwhelming, proving beyond the shadow 
of a doubt his Divine call : First, the inward impression ; 
second, the outward call of the Church; third, the sal- 



COAI.S i^ROM Yhe: A1.TAR. 75 

vatlon of souls. He now has his diploma, as Bishop 
Simpson says, signed and sealed by God Almighty. 

No man has any right to enter the sacred desk unless 
"called of God as was Aaron;'' unless he feels as did 
Paul, ''Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.'' To-day, 
as in all ages of the past, God calls, commissions, and 
sends men forth to preach His gospel. The absolute 
necessity of a Divine call to fit men for the ministry 
is clearly brought out by Paul in the tenth chapter of 
Romans: ''How shall they hear without a preacher? 
And how shall they preach except they be sent?" A 
man must have Divine authority and Divine unction in 
order to preach the gospel with success; and without 
the Divine authority and unction his message will be 
as the "sounding brass and the tinkling cymbal." 

Paul said to the Galatians: "I certify you, brethren, 
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after 
man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I 
taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." There 
is not a spark of human invention in it, nor the slightest 
touch of human cunning. No man taught me what I 
have preached to you. The message came direct from 
the Almighty. The minister, conscious of His Divine 
call, goes into the pulpit feeling that behind him is the 
Lord God Omnipotent. 

3. The great work of the minister is to preach, and 
in order to do this effectively he must study. Paul said 
to Timothy, "Study to show thyself approved unto God 
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly di- 
viding the word of truth." 

The pulpit should be the minister's throne of power. 
It can not be a throne of power without intense, earnest, 
and prolonged study. Some people think that the office 



76 COAI.S FROM THE Altar. 

of the minister in a sinecure, and all he has to do is to 
draw his pay, and loiter away his time in ease and pleas- 
ure. They have not the remotest idea of the vast 
amount of labor devolving upon the true pastor. Many 
think the preacher has nothing to do during the week, 
and all he has to do on the Sabbath is to go into the 
pulpit, open his mouth, and the Lord will fill it. Sam 
Jones says some preachers down in Georgia believe 
that, and act accordingly. "They go into the pulpit, 
open their mouths, and God fills them — with air. There 
are a great many Httle air-guns going around in Geor- 
gia." There are some of that sort in the North, as well 
as in the South. The majority of the people are igno- 
rant of the great amount of labor that is required in 
order to prepare one sermon for the pulpit. The suc- 
cessful minister must do as Paul told Timothy to do — 
"Study." 

4. As the minister preaches to all classes, the rich 
and the poor, the learned and the unlearned, the young 
and the old, he should aim to preach so that every one 
under the sound of his voice can understand him. 

When Christ was on earth He taught so that every 
one could understand Him. The children understood 
Him. The poor and the uneducated understood Him. 
Hence it was said, ''The common people heard Him 
gladly." And every minister of the gospel should imi- 
tate His example. God, in His Word, has commanded 
us to preach so as to be understood by all the people. 
He has positively prohibited our preaching in an ''un- 
known tongue." That positive interdiction you will find 
in the fourteenth chapter of First Corinthians : "If the 
trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare him- 
self for the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by 
the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it 



CoAIyS ^ROM TH^ AlvTAR. 77 

be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into 
the air." 

I have heard ministers who had the reputation of 
being profoundly wise and learned, ''speak into the air." 
Not one in ten who heard them understood them. I 
did not understand them, and I even doubted whether 
they themselves understood what they were talking 
about. High-sounding and meaningless phrases in the 
pulpit are disgusting. Glittering generalities and plati- 
tudes from the pulpit are the things that many of our 
people have to endure from Sabbath to Sabbath. The 
great and most profoundly wise and deeply spiritual 
are the most simple, plain, and easily understood. 

A working man once went to hear Bishop Tillotson, 
a learned and popular English divine, preach. After the 
sermon the man said: ''And that is one of your great 
bishops ! Why, I understood every word he said." The 
bishop heard of it, and was delighted with the high 
compliment. 

I once heard Bishop Bowman say that the highest 
compliment ever paid him was by an old colored man 
down in Kentucky. When president of Asbury Uni- 
versity he was invited to go down and dedicate a church. 
After he had preached, an old colored man walked down 
the aisle, and up into the pulpit, shook hands with him, 
and said: *'Well, Doctor, you are the most ignorentest 
man I ever heard preach. I understood every word you 
said." "That," said the bishop, "was the highest com- 
pliment ever paid me by any one." 

Christ's charge to Peter was intended for His min- 
isters throughout all ages, "Feed My sheep f "food 
My lambs." The minister should place the feed within 
the reach of the lambs as well as the older sheep. 

5. The minister must visit from house to house. He 



78 Coals ^rom the; Ai.tar. 

may be eloquent and preach like an angel ; but if he does 
not do the work of a pastor, his ministry, to an extent 
at least, will be a failure. The preachers in the primitive 
Church were pastors. They visited from house to 
house. Luke tells us that the first apostles commis- 
sioned by Christ and sent forth to preach, taught every- 
where. *'Daily in the temple and in every house they 
ceased not to preach Jesus Christ.'' Paul said to the 
elders at Ephesus, ''Ye know how I kept nothing back 
that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and 
have taught you publicly and from house to house." 
The minister who can not visit had better leave the pul- 
pit and take up some other occupation. 

6. The minister should be baptized with the Holy 
Ghost. Christ said to the apostles, ''Ye shall receive 
power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.'' 
Just before He ascended to heaven He said to His 
apostles, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be 
endued with power from on high." That command they 
obeyed. They tarried, they prayed, they beheved, until 
the Holy Ghost in His strange and mysterious power 
fell upon them. Then they went everywhere preaching 
the Word, and no one could resist the power with which 
they spoke. If the first apostles needed that baptism, 
ministers now need it as well ; and if the ministers to-day 
are baptized as the first apostles were, then, as the burn- 
ing words of Divine truth emanate from their Hps, the 
Holy Ghost will carry them to the hearts of the people, 
and none will be able to resist their power. 

A congregation had assembled for worship. The 
hour for service had arrived. But the preacher was not 
present. That preacher was the saintly John Fletcher. 
He was a man of prayer. History tells us that his knees 
were callous, and the wall before which he kneeled was 



CoAIvS I^ROM the: AIvTAR. 79 

stained with his breath from his long continuance in 
prayer. A messenger was sent to tell Fletcher that the 
congregation was waiting for him. The messenger re- 
turned, and said to those who sent him: ''He is in his 
room talking with some one. I overheard him say, 'I 
will not go unless You go with me.' " In a little while 
he came, and the other One came with him. He 
preached, and the congregation was moved and melted 
under his powerful and overwhelming appeals, and many 
were saved. What we need as ministers, over and above 
and beyond all other things, is ''the other One." O 
God, may Thy ministering servants all over the land 
never go into their pulpits unless "The other One" goes 
with them ! 

7. Finally, the minister must marry the young, bury 
the dead, visit the sick, comfort the dying, and have 
poured into his ears the troubles and sorrows of all 
the people. I have often cried out with Paul, as the 
responsibilities and burdens of the pastorate with crush- 
ing weight have pressed upon me, "Who is sufficient 
for these things ?" 

I '' 'T is not a cause of small import 
\ The pastor's care demands, 
[ But what might fill an angel's heart, 
And filled a Savior's hands." 

While the responsibilities of the pastor arc grave 
and weighty, and his labors arduous and unremitting, 
there is no work on this planet that brings more real 
joy and satisfaction to the heart. "The lowest pulpit 
on earth is higher than the highest throne." A happier 
class of men can not be found anywhere than the faith- 
ful ministers of the gospel. 

I have thus given a brief outline of what the min- 
ister should be and do. 



8o Coals i^rom the: AivTar. 

II. Let us look, in the second place, at the other side 
of this question. What should the members of the 
Church be and do? 

I. The members of the Church should be converted. 
Church membership ^lone will not give you a title to 
heaven. Something more than that is required. You 
may belong to the Church, you may have been bap- 
tized, you may attend the sacrament, you may go 
through all the rounds of religious worship, and not be 
saved at all. Thousands in the Churches have the form 
only, but are without the power of godliness. They 
have a name to live, and at the same time are dead in 
trespasses and in sin. In the last great day many mem- 
bers of the Church, and many ministers of the gospel 
as well, will say, 'Xord, Lord, have we not prophesied 
in Thy name ? and in Thy name cast out devils ? and in 
Thy name done many wonderful works?'' But the 
Judge will say, ''I never knew you ; depart from Me, ye 
that work iniquity." If it be absolutely necessary that 
there be piety in the pulpit, it is just as necesary that 
there should be piety in the pew. If the minister should 
be religious, so also should the members be. 

If your title is not clear to a mansion in the skies, 
you had better examine that title. A single link miss- 
ing in the chain shadows the title. See to it that the 
chain is without a missing Hnk — that the title is perfect. 
Then you may bid farewell to every fear, and wipe your 
weeping eyes. If you are converted, and the Spirit of 
God bears witness with your spirit that you are saved, 
then you will feel as the pastor feels touching the un- 
saved all around you. Your hearts will go out with in- 
tense, earnest, longing desire for their salvation; and 
you will be ready to make sacrifices and go out after 
these unsaved ones. Then we shall have as many 



Coals i^rom thk Awar. 8i 

preachers as there are members. Every member of the 
Church will be a flaming herald of salvation. 

2. The members should be baptized with the Holy 
Ghost. If it is necessary that the minister be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost, it is just as necessary that the 
members have this same wondrous baptism. Turn, if 
you please, to that upper-room scene in Jerusalem, re- 
corded in the first chapter of Acts. 

Luke tells us that not only were the eleven apostles 
there, but Mary was there, and other women were there, 
and the brethren were there, in all about one hundred 
and twenty. ''These all continued of one accord in 
prayer and supplication ;'' and all received the same fiery 
baptism. If it were necessary in that early day for the 
members of the Church to receive the wonderful bap- 
tism of the Holy Ghost to qualify them for their work, 
it is just as necessary now. Sin and Satan and the world 
and human nature are the same now as they were nine- 
teen hundred years ago, and the only possible power 
that can cope with these tremendous forces of evil is 
Divine power. So if you would be more than a match 
for your great enemy, you must be clothed with panoply 
divine. 

The promise made by Christ to the hundred and 
twenty, and fulfilled in that upper room at Jerusalem, 
is made to us as well. *'Ye shall receive power after 
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." And if we 
comply with the conditions as the hundred and twenty 
did — wait, and pray, and believe — we shall realize the 
fulfillment of the promise. 

It is hardly possible for us to estimate iIk- \aM 
amount of good a Church would accomplish in any 
community if all the members had this heavenly 
anointing. 
6 



82 CoAlwS P^ROM TH^ A1.TAR. 

3. The members of the Church should pray ''that 
the word of the Lord may have free course and be 
glorified/' ''Brethern, pray for us." 

Charles G. Finney gives an account of a pastor who 
had a revival in his Church for fourteen years in suc- 
cession; and the reason he had this constant and mar- 
velous revival was, all the members of his Church were 
constantly praying for him; and in answer to their 
united prayers every obstacle was swept out of the way, 
the word of the Lord had free course, and God was 
glorified. 

Dr. Chapman held union evangelistic meetings in 
Lincoln some years ago. He had been in the evangel- 
istic work but a short time. The last charge he was 
pastor of was in Philadelphia. The first Sunday he 
spent in his new charge, he went to the church in the 
morning two hours before service. He said he was 
anxious to see the buiding and the auditorium where 
he was to hold forth from Sabbath to Sabbath. He 
walked down the long aisle, went up into the pulpit, 
and surveyed the large audience-room. Then he walked 
down the steps on the other side of the pulpit, passed 
up the aisle, and near the door he met a man, not pre- 
possessing in his looks at all. The man took him by the 
hand and said: 

''What is your name ?" 

"My name is Chapman." 

"Are you our pastor?" 

"I guess I am." 

"You are a very young man to be the pastor of such 
a great Church as this." 

"Yes, I am young, and I shall not succeed unless 
I have the Lord Jesus with me all the time," said the 
Doctor. 



CoAIvS I^ROM the: AIvTAR. 83 

"Well," said the brother, ''another member of this 
Church and I have just been praying for you out 
in the lecture-room; and just a few moments ago we 
banded ourselves together to pray every day for you 
that you might be a soul-winner." 

"O," said the Doctor, ''those words thrilled me 
through and through. They came to me as an inspira- 
tion. I never had anything do me so much good in my 
life. Two hours afterwards I went into the pulpit, and 
as I looked over the vast congregation that had as- 
sembled to hear me, I said to myself, 'I know that two 
persons in this audience are praying for me ; and I 
preached that morning, as otherwise I could not have 
preached." Said the Doctor: "The two became ten, 
the ten became twenty, the twenty became fifty, the fifty 
became a hundred, the hundred became five hundred. 
And I know that five hundred men and women are pray- 
ing for me every day that I may be a soul-winner." 

"Well," said I to myself, "no wonder you succeed. 
No true minister of the gospel could fail, backed by the 
prayers of five hundred godly men and women." 

Brethren, pray for us, that the Word which we 
preach may have free course and be glorified. 

Then, we should remember that we have much to do 
in answering our own prayers. If the sinner prays for 
pardon he has something to do in having that prayer 
answered. He must stop sin, unconditionally surrender 
himself to God, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 
If Christians pray that the word of the Lord may have 
free course and be glorified, they have something to do 
in answering that prayer. 

A little boy, after hearing his father pray that the 
wants of the poor might be supplied, said to him: 

"Father, I wish I had your corn." 



84 CoAivS ^ROM the: A1.TAR. 

''Well, my son," said the father, ''what would you 
do if you had my corn?" 

"I would answer your prayer," repHed the boy. 

We pray that the heathen may speedily be given to 
Christ for an inheritance. We can do much in answer- 
ing that prayer ourselves. If we would have that prayer 
answered, we must turn a part of our income into the 
Lord's treasury. So when we pray that the Word of 
the Lord may have free course and be glorified, we 
should remember that we have much to do in answer- 
ing that prayer. 

First, we may aid in answering that prayer by invit- 
ing the people to come to the house of God, where they 
can hear the message of salvation. Many a soul has 
been saved by simply being asked to go to Church. 

A young man in the city of London was on his way 
to the theater. A friend met him and said, "We are 
having a great revival in our Church; come with me 
to-night and hear the evangelist." The young man 
studied for a moment, and then said, "I will." Instead 
of going to the theater, he went to the revival, was con- 
victed, and that very night was gloriously converted, 
and afterwards became an eminent minister of the gos- 
pel. A simple invitation to go to Church saved that 
young man, and gave to England one of her greatest 
divines. 

The subject of personal work was being discussed 
at a prayer-meeting in Trinity Church, where my family 
hold their membership. A lady, one of the leading 
members of the Church, arose and said: "Years ago I 
kept boarders. A young lady came to board with me. 
She was a society girl. She was passionately fond of 
the theater, the ball-room, and cards. Nearly every 
night she was out at some social gathering. One night, 



COAI.S I^ROM the: A1.TAR. 85 

when preparing to go to prayer-meeting, something 
said to me, 'Invite Miss Blank to go with you to prayer- 
meeting/ Then the suggestion came, 'O, she is a soci- 
ety girl ; she won't go if you do ask her, and she won't 
thank you for asking her;' so I did not ask her. The 
next Thursday night, while preparing for prayer-meet- 
ing, the same thought came to me, 'Invite Miss Blank 
to go to prayer-meeting.' Then the same suggestion 
came. 'She do n't care anything about the Church. 
Her mind is all on the world, and she won't go if you 
do ask her.' Then the thought came to me, 'This is 
the suggestion of the devil, and I won't yield to it as 
I did a week ago.' So, having finished my toilet, I went 
down stairs, entered her room, and said, 'Miss Blank, 
I am going to prayer-meeting to-night; won't you go 
with me? I shall be delighted to have you go.' She 
looked up into my face with surprise, and drawing a 
long breath she replied : 'Yes, I will. I have been won- 
dering and wondering why you did not ask me before.' 
We went to the prayer-meeting, and after that, every 
time I went, she went, and in four weeks was converted, 
and for years she has been one of the most devoted 
Christians and active workers in the Church I ever 
knew." The good you may do by simply inviting a per- 
/ son to go to Church, or a child to go to the Sunday- 
' school, can not possibly be estimated. The weakest 
member of the Church can do this, and, in doing so, 
will hasten the glad day of the world's conversion. 

A friend of mine once entertained Ralph Wells, the 
great Sunday-school worker, in his own home for three 
days. While there, my friend said to him, "Mr. Wells, 
tell me how you became such a great Sunday-school 
worker." "I shall be glad to do so," said Mr. Wells, 
and then went on : '*The next Sunday after I was con- 



86 COAI^S ^ROM THE Al^TAR. 

verted I went to the Sunday-school superintendent, and 
said to him, 'Now I have been converted, and I want 
to do something for the Lord. I want you to give me 
a class in your Sunday-school/ The superintendent re- 
plied : 'I can't give you a class. You do n't know enough 
to teach in my school.' I was chagrined and mortified, 
and went away feeling very bad. The next Sunday I 
went back, and said to the superintendent: 'Now, Mr. 
Superintendent, the Lord has done a great work for me, 
and I feel that I must work for him. Won't you give 
me a class in your school?' 'No, I will not,' said he; 'I 
told you last Sabbath that you did not know enough to 
teach in my school.' 'Well, now, Mr. Superintendent,' 
said I, 'if I go out and hunt up a class, and bring them 
here, will you let me teach them in your school?' And 
absolutely he hesitated for a few moments, but finally 
said, 'Well, if you will go out and hunt up a class of 
new scholars, I guess you may teach them in my school.' 
"The next day I started out. There was a widow 
who lived in a fine, palatial residence near the church. 
She had a boy, and I was well acquainted with him. He 
was the meanest boy I ever knew. I think he was the 
vilest wretch in all the city. I walked up the stone steps 
and rang the bell. A servant opened the door and in- 
vited me in. I asked for the lady of the house. In a 
little while she came into the parlor where I was sitting, 
and I arose and said to her : 'I have come to ask you if 
you will not let your boy come to our Sunday-school.' 
'No, I won't. Boys learn more meanness in the Sunday- 
school than anywhere else.' Then I felt very bad, and 
wished I had not come. I took my hat, walked out the 
door, passed down the stone steps, and when I reached 
the sidewalk the door opened, and the lady called me 
back. I went back, and she said to me: 'Now, if my 



CoAI.S F^ROM the: AWAR. 87 

boy should go to your Sunday-school, who will be his 
teacher? If he goes, I want to know who is to be his 
instructor.' It seemed to me, at first, that I could not 
tell her, if he went to the Sunday-school, that I would 
be his teacher. But after hesitating a moment, I finally 
said, 'Well, Madam, if your boy goes to our Sunday- 
school I expect to teach him myself.' 'Well,' said she, 
'if you will be his teacher I will let him go. He will be 
there next Sunday.' And the next Sunday I had a class 
in that Sunday-school. I had only one scholar, and he 
was that boy. I spent the whole hour telling him my 
experience. I told him how wonderfully the Lord had 
converted my soul, and how happy the religion of Christ 
made me; and I told him that if he would just give his 
heart to Christ, God would save him just as He had 
saved me, and make him just as happy as He had made 
me. That Sunday night I saw that boy converted, and 
from that day to this he has been my co-laborer in the 
great Sunday-school work. He has led thousands of 
children to Christ for salvation. My success in leading 
that boy to Christ made me the Sunday-school worker 
that I am." 

The simple invitation of Ralph Wells for that mother 
to let her boy go to the Sunday-school started waves 
of influence for good that will widen and roll on forever. 
Any man, or woman, or child can do as much as Ralph 
Wells did, — invite some one to go to the Sunday-school, 
and, in so doing, you may aid in answering your prayer, 
that "the Word of the Lord may have free course and 
be glorified." 

Then, you may aid in answering your own prayers 
by speaking to the unsaved about the salvation of their 
souls. 

An eminent minister of the gospel tells this story on 



88 COAIvS P^ROM THE AlvTAR. 

himself: ^'When a young man attending college, and 
preparing for the ministry, I had a room-mate who was 
not a Christian. One day he said to me, 'There is one 
thing I can not possibly understand/ 'Well, what is it?' 
said I. 'You profess to be a Christian,' said he, 'and 
are preparing for the ministry, and I have been your 
room-mate for three years, and you have never said a 
word to me about the salvation of my soul/ I never 
had such a rebuke in my life. I thought it would kill 
me. I got down on my knees, the tears streaming down 
my face, and asked him to forgive me. Then I talked 
to him about his soul, and urged him to become a 
Christian. In three weeks he was converted." 

A little girl said to her grandfather, who was eighty 
years old, "Grandpa, why do n't you get religion and 
prepare for heaven?" The words went to his heart 
with wondrous power. He at once gave his heart to 
God, and was converted. Then he said: "I am eighty 
years old, and no one in all these years ever said a 
word to me about my soul's salvation except my grand- 
daughter." What a shame ! 

There are hungry souls all about us, and they won- 
der why Christians do not speak to them about their 
salvation. If our religion is worth anything, it is worth 
personally recommending to others. Talk to the un- 
saved about their souls. A single word has led many 
a soul into the kingdom. The best fruit I have ever 
picked for the Master has been hand-picked fruit. 
Every member of the Church may do this kind of work, 
and in so doing will augment the company of the re- 
deemed in glory. 

The final glorification of the Word will be, when pas- 
tor and members meet on the plains of glory. Paul said 
to the PhiHppians, "Ye are my joy and crown." Those 



C0AI.S I^ROM TH^ A1.TAR. 89 

won to Christ through his instrumentality would be the 
crown of his rejoicing in the heavenly world. To the 
Corinthians he said, ''We are your rejoicing, even as ye 
also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus/' In the last 
great day, when the world's history shall wind to a 
close, and the redeemed milHons shall gather around the 
great white throne, then pastor and people will rejoice 
together. Some you have been instrumental in leading 
to Christ have gone home, others are on their way, and 
others may follow. The time comes on apace when you 
will all meet to part no more forever. 

**What a meeting, what a meeting that will be!'* 

St. John was upon the isle of Patmos ''for the word 
of the Lord and the testimony of Jesus Christ.'' He 
was banished to this lonely, rocky island, in the midst 
of the ^gean Sea, by Nero, because he was a faithful 
witness of the Lord Jesus. While here he was carried 
away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, where 
he beheld the city of the New Jerusalem. I have often 
been deeply impressed with John's wonderful descrip- 
tion of that city. I have often thought of the gates of 
the city. This golden city had twelve gates. "On the 
east, three gates ; on the north, three gates ; on the 
south, three gates ; on the west, three gates." (Rev. 
xxi, 13.) 

The heavenly city has gates on every side. Away 
over in the east yonder, it may be, some of your spir- 
itual children lie buried. Some of their dusty beds may 
be in the north and some in the east, some in the south 
and some in the west. By and by you will be called 
home, and by and by your children will be called home. 
In the last great day, when Gabriel's trump shall call 
Christ's saints to the skies, those coming up from the 



90 COAI.S FROM the: Ai.TAR. 

east will enter the east gate, those from the north the 
north gate, those from the south the south gate, and 
those from the west the west gate. From every point 
of the compass they will come, and enter in through 
the gates into the celestial city. 

Earth is the seed-time ; eternity will be the harvest. 
We may now go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, 
but we shall come again rejoicing, bringing our sheaves 
with us. We may sow in tears, but we shall reap in joy. 
To the toil-worn laborer in Christ's vineyard, whether 
he be a pastor or private member, the outlook is grand, 
inspiring, glorious. ''They that be wise shall shine as 
the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn 
many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.'' 
(Dan. xii, 3.) 



Chapter VII. 

THE OUT-AND-OUT CHRISTIAN. 

''One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I 
see." — ^JoHN IX, 25. 

EarIvY one morning, nineteen hundred years ago, 
in the city of Jerusalem, Jesus, the Son of God, went 
into the Temple. Crowds followed Him, and soon that 
vast building was packed to its utmost capacity with an 
eager, restless, nervous throng. Curiosity touching the 
Savior was on tiptoe. His fame had already become 
world-wide. His startling declarations. His wonderful 
miracles, His lofty teachings, had stirred all Jerusalem 
and all the regions round about. All day long He had 
been teaching the people, confounding the scribes and 
Pharisees. And when these scribes and Pharisees could 
no longer hold an argument with Him ; when foiled at 
every attempt to answer Him ; when, to every question 
asked and argument advanced, He completely turned 
the tables on them, they became indignant, every vile 
passion was aroused, and as the wicked always do when 
defeated in argument, resort to abuse, so these scribes 
and Pharisees, having utterly failed to answer any of 
the Savior's arguments or questions, resorted to the low 
methods of the vilest of the vile. They began to hurl 
stones at Him ; but the Savior eluded them, slipped out 
of the Temple, and was safe. 

91 



92 CoAI.S FROM THE A1.TAR. 

*'And as he passed by, He saw a man which was 
blind from his birth." He spat on the ground, made 
clay of the spittle, anointed the eyes of the blind man, 
and told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The 
blind man went and washed, and came seeing. The 
people that beheld the miracle were astonished, and 
said, "Is not this he that sat and begged?" Some said 
he was ; others said he was not. Then they said to him, 
''How were thine eyes opened?" He repHed, "A man 
that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, 
and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash ; 
and I went and washed, and I received sight." Then 
the Pharisees began to question him, ''How did you 
receive your sight?" The restored blind man said, "He 
put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see." 
Still they were not satisfied, and they called in his par- 
ents, and said to them, "Is this your son, who ye say 
was born blind? how then doth he now see?" The 
parents replied: "We know that this is our son, and 
that he was born blind. But by what means he now 
seeth we know not. He is of age ; ask him." Then 
they said, "Give God the praise ; we know that this man 
is a sinner." The restored blind man replied, "Whether 
he be a sinner or no, I know not ; one thing I know, 
that, whereas I was blind, now I see." 

; I. The out-and-out Christian is an implicit believer 
in Christ. 

Read the history of this blind man, and you will find 
that he had unshaken faith in the Savior. The language 
of this man was, "I believe," and this is the language 
of every out-and-out Christian, "I believe in God the 
Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth : and in 
Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was con- 



CoAIvS I^ROM TH^ A1.TAR. 93 

ceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; 
suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and 
buried; the third day He rose from the dead; He as- 
cended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God 
the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy 
Ghost; the one universal Church of Christ, the com- 
munion of saints ; the forgiveness of sins ; the resur- 
rection of the body; and the life everlasting. I believe 
there is a real God, a real devil, a real heaven, and a 
real hell." 

But more: the out-and-out Christian has not only 
this general faith, but he has a specific faith. "I believe 
in Jesus Christ as my presonal, present, perfect, and 
complete Savior. He saves me from sin, guilt, condem- 
nation, and all fear; and I know that He who now so 
wonderfully saves me, will ultimately save me forever 
in glory." 

\ n. The out-and-out Christian is obedient. 

/ When Christ anointed the eyes of the blind man, 
and commanded him to go and wash in the pool of 
Siloam, he obeyed. He went and washed. He did not 
cavil. He did not stop to argue the question. He did 
not say, as he might have said, *'Now, Lord, this is a 
very unreasonable command. It is much more reason- 
able that clay should put a man's eyes out than restore 
them." No; he said no such thing. The very instant 
the command was given, without one moment's hesi- 
tation, he obeyed ; he went and washed, and came seeing. 
Christ is our Teacher, our Guide, our Great Com- 
mander. The out-and-out Christian is obedient to every 
command given. ''To obey is better than sacrifice." 
(i Sam. XV, 22) 



94 CoAi.s' FROM the: Ai^tar. 

*'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that 
doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven." (Matt, 
vii, 21.) 

''Blessed are they that do His commandments, that 
they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter 
in through the gates into the city.'' (Rev. xxii, 14.) 

''Whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we 
keep His commandments, and do those things that are 
pleasing in His sight." (i John iii, 22) 

Christ was obedient to the Father. We are to be 
obedient to the Father and the Son. Paul says : 
''Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience 
by the things which He suffered. And being made per- 
fect. He became the author of eternal salvation unto all 
them that obey Him." (Heb. v, 8, 9.) 

The world will never forget that little boy, the son 
of the commander of the Orient, Before the battle of 
the Nile, the captain of the ship placed his little son, 
only thirteen years old, on duty, and said to him, "Re- 
main here until you receive orders from me to leave." 
Soon after the father was slain. The boy knew nothing 
of the fate of his father. The battle raged fearfully. 
At length the ship took fire, and when the sailors and 
soldiers were preparing to leave the ship, the boy cried 
out, "Father, may I go?" No response came from his 
dead father. The flames were rapidly approaching the 
noble boy, when again he cried, "Father, may I go?" 
No response came. When the flames reached him, and 
were curling about him, singeing his hair and scorching 
his clothes, he cried out again, "Father, may I go?" 
No response came. And there the boy stood at the 
post of duty, and perished in the flames. The obedience 



CoAivS ]?ROM the: Altar. 95 

of that loving bo}^ although it cost him his life, has been 
honored and admired by all the thousands who have 
read the thrilling incident. 

Those who are obedient to every command given by 
the Great Captain of our salvation will be honored and 
admired and applauded by God and Christ and the 
angels and the redeemed millions in glory, not only 
throughout all time, but through all the ages of eternity. 

"My son, give me thy heart.'' Obedience to that 
command is the first step in the heavenly pathway. The 
will, the heart, the life must be surrendered to God. 

A traveling man relates the following : 

''Soon after taking my seat in a railway car the 
conductor came along and punched my ticket, marked 
me with his eye, and passed on. As he was again leis- 
urely passing, I said: 

" 'Conductor, I 'm a conductor.' 

"'You a conductor?' he said. 

" 'Yes, on the Celestial Railway. Have you a 
through ticket?' 

" 'I fear not,' he replied. 

" 'You had better get one, or you will be put off 
the train before you get into the city.' 

" 'May I ask you a question?' 

" 'Yes.' 

" 'Do you ever pray?' 

" 'Yes.' 

" 'Does your wife hear you?' 

" 'Yes.' 

" 'I '11 tell you,' he said. 'I 've started recently, but 
in a quiet way. I have n't joined the Church, or been 
baptized, and do n't think I will be' 

" 'But,' I repUed, 'that is the order of the General 



96 Coals p^rom the Altar. 

Superintendent of the Celestial Railway, and you can't 
expect favors on this line unless you obey orders ; have 
to obey orders, or quit the road.' 

" 'I guess that 's so,' he said, thoughtfully, and added, 
'but it is a long, hard struggle.' 

'' 'So it seemed to me once,' I replied, 'but I have 
learned better. It is a matter of perfect obedience ; 
at that point the struggle ends. It is all up-grade till 
we get there.' 

"And I was so glad to be able to tell him I had struck 
down-grade, the struggle was over, and the way bright 
and beautiful. There was call for a station, and as he 
turned to leave, as though new light had come to him, 
with a smile he said, 'I think you 're right.' " 

Reader, have you struck down-grade? If not, obey, 
and you will strike it ; then all will be easy. 

When the late Earl Cairns was a little boy he heard 
three words which made a memorable impression upon 
him : "God claims you." Then came the question, 
"What am I going to do with the claim ?" He answered, 
"I will own it, and give myself to God." He went home 
and told his mother, "God claims me." At school and 
college his motto was, "God claims me." As a member 
of ParHament, and ultimately as lord chancellor, it was 
still "God claims me." When he was appointed lord 
chancellor he was teacher of a large Bible-class, and his 
minister, thinking that now he would not have time to 
devote to that purpose, said to him : "I suppose you will 
now require to give up your class?" "No," was the 
reply, "I will not; God claims me." 

Reader, God claims you. What are you going to do 
with the claim? Better acknowledge the claim, and sur- 
render yourself forever to God. 



CoAivS :^ROM the: Altar. 97 

III. Being an implicit believer in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and obedient to every command, the out-and-out 
Christian is, in the third place, a changed man. 

How different this bhnd man was after he believed 
and obeyed, from what he was before he believed and 
obeyed ! Before he believed and obeyed he was blind. 
He had never seen the smiling faces of loved ones, and 
had never looked upon the beauties and glories of the 
natural world. After he believed and obeyed, his eyes 
were opened, and for the first time in his life he was 
permitted to see ; and the beautiful scenes and ravishing 
splendors that met him on every hand must have been 
overwhelmingly glorious. 

So the out-and-out Christian has met with a marked 
change. ''If any man be in Christ he is a new creature ; 
old things have passed away ; behold, all things are 
become new." (2 Cor. v, 17.) This change, therefore, 
is called a new creation. Then it is called a new birth: 
"Except a man be born again, he can not see the king- 
dom of God." (John iii, 3.) These are great changes — 
marvelous changes ; and when they occur, the person 
on whom they are wrought is sensible of the great 
change. 

Every out-and-out Christian can say with this re- 
stored blind man, ''One thing I know, that, whereas I 
was blind, now I see." "I know that my sins are for- 
given ; I know I am a child of God and an heir of glory ; 
I know that, if the earthly house of this tabernacle were 
dissolved, I have a building of God, a house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." I know. No un- 
certainty here. Reader, do you know? If not, don't 
rest until you do know. 

Now, the evidence of this change does not come 
7 



98 COAI.S FROM THE A1.TAR. 

to every one in the same way ; hence the experience of 
Christians differs. To some the evidence of this change 
is instantaneous. It is Hke the electric flash from the 
thunder-cloud. They can point to the very day, and 
the very hour, and the very moment when the change 
came. With others it is different. They can not tell 
just when and where the change was wrought. They 
are like the blind man our Savior took by the hand and 
led out of the town. He put His hands on him and 
asked if he saw. ''I see/' said he, ''men as trees walk- 
ing.'^ That is, he saw dimly, not distinctly. The Savior 
put his hands on him the second time ; and he saw every 
man clearly. 

One man can say, ''On Monday, the fourth day of 
March, 1852, in the town of South Bend, Indiana, at nine 
o'clock P. M., God, for Christ's sake, pardoned all my 
sins.'' That is my experience, and for me to be able 
to point to the very day and hour when I was converted 
is indeed a very great comfort, and will never be for- 
gotten in time or eternity. 

But another Christian, just as good as I am, just as 
clear in his experience of pardoned sin, just as certain 
that he is a child of God and an heir of glory as I am, 
can not point to the very day and hour when the change 
came. While he may not be able to point to the very 
day and hour when the change came, he can say with 
this restored blind man, ''One thing I know, that, 
whereas I was blind, now I see." And his experience is 
just as good as mine. So if your experience is not just 
like some other brother's or sister's, do n't be dissatis- 
fied about that. 

Every out-and-out Christian has the indubitable evi- 
dence of salvation ; but every one may not be able to 
point to the exact time and place when the change came. 



Coals i^rom the; Altar. 99 

IV. The out-and-out Christian is wholly sanctified. 
God commands us to be holy, ''Ye shall be holy ; for I 
the Lord your God am holy.'' (Lev. xix, 2.) 

God promises to make us holy. Paul prayed for the 
Church at Thessalonica, and for the Church throughout 
all ages as well, saying, ''The very God of peace sanctify 
you wholly,'' etc. (i Thess. v, 23.) 

The out-and-out Christian has obeyed the command, 
and he has the evidence within his own heart of the ful- 
fillment of the inspiring promise. He knows that "the 
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth him from all 
sin." 

The first step to entire sanctification is consecration. 
To get initial salvation, we surrender ourselves to God, 
and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. To get full sal- 
vation, or entire sanctification, we consecrate all to God, 
and believe in Jesus. To consecrate is to set apart. 
In consecrating ourselves wholly to God, every faculty 
and power of body, soul, and spirit is forever set apart 
for the honor and glory of God. "I beseech you there- 
fore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present 
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
which is your reasonable service." (Rom. xii, i.) This 
earnest exhortation is given to Christians, not to the 
unconverted. The sinner can not make this "living 
sacrifice," because all his faculties and powers are dead 
in trespasses and sin. But when the sinner surrenders 
to God and believes in Jesus Christ, he is made a new 
creature in Christ Jesus. He is raised from the death 
of sin to a life of righteousness. And when he is made 
alive in Christ Jesus, then, and not till then, can he pre- 
sent to God a living sacrifice. 

The world has a wrong idea of consecration. Many 
Christians have a wrong idea touching this matter. In 

LoFC. 



lOO C0AI.S I^ROM the: A1.TAR. 

fact, the masses of the people are away off with regard 
to the true meaning of consecration. They look upon 
consecration as the giving up of all we have, and when 
a man makes this consecration they somehow feel that 
he goes out into the world a pauper, never again to own 
anything. That is not the idea at all. True, we have 
to give up many things, and some things, possibly, that 
are very dea.r to us. We may have to part with some 
things that have been the idol of our hearts for years; 
and it may seem at the time that it will kill us to part 
with them. But we never have to give up anything that 
will be a real benefit to us, or that will in any way help 
us in life. We should remember that when we make a 
full consecration to God, although we may have to give 
up some things that are very dear, some things that 
cost us the hardest and most painful struggle of life, 
yet at the same time we get back a milHon times more' 
than we give. When our consecration is complete, then 
God does His work, — cleanses the heart from inbred 
sin. Man's work is to consecrate; God's work is to 
sanctify wholly, and cleanse the heart from all sin. 

When every faculty and power of body, soul, and 
spirit are forever consecrated to God, then the Holy 
Ghost comes into the soul in His cleansing and purify- 
ing power, and we just begin to receive, ''Good measure, 
pressed down, shaken together, and running over." 

A friend of mine said : ''When I made this consecra- 
tion, it seemed that the floodgates of heaven opened, 
and light and joy and glory, such as I had never experi- 
enced in all my life before, began to pour into my soul, 
and they came with increasing floods, more and more, 
and I thought they never would stop; and they never 
have." When a person makes this consecration, then he 
becomes the most abundant receiver in the world. He 



CoAiyS i^ROM the; Ai,tar. ioi 

receives from God as never before, and he never stops 
receiving. 

A more thoroughly consecrated man never lived 
than John Fletcher. At one time God began to pour 
upon him His richest blessings. They came, richer and 
faster, more and more, the mighty tide of rapture con- 
tinued to flood his soul until he felt that he could bear 
no more, and he cried out to the Almighty, saying, 
''Stay Thy hand.'' And many, like Fletcher, have had 
to cry out, ''Hold on. Lord, or the vessel will break." 
The noblest blood in the universe courses through the 
veins of the wholly-sanctified men and women of the 
Church. 

How inspiring is the thought, "I am the child of a 
King V It is worth a good deal to a man to know that 
he belongs to a good family. When the Prince of Wales 
visited America many years ago, every act and word 
was chronicled in the public press, and he was watched 
to see if he comported in every particular as became the 
son of Queen Victoria and the heir-apparent to the 
English throne. The out-and-out Christian is higher 
in rank than the Prince of Wales. He is the son of the 
Lord God Almighty, and joint heir with the Lord Jesus 
Christ to a part of the entire universe. Hallelujah ! 

V. The out-and-out Christian is a witness for Christ. 
One of the greatest calamities that could possibly befall 
a Jew was to be excommunicated from the Temple. 
When a person was excommunicated he was no longer 
a member of the Jewish Church, and scarcely deemed 
a member of the commonwealth. This restored blind 
man knew very well that, in confessing Christ as the 
Restorer of his eyesight, he laid himself liable to this 
dreadful calamity. But notwithstanding this great dis- 



I02 CoAl.S l^ROM mn A1.TAR. 

grace stared him in the face, he boldly confessed Christ, 
and was excommunicated. ''They cast him out." 

In heathen lands to-day to become a Christian means 
the loss of all things. In some localities, when a man 
becomes a Christian and is baptized, he is disowned by 
his parents and relatives, and forever afterwards is 
looked upon as an outcast. But with this great disgrace 
staring them in the face, men and women every day are 
boldly coming out on the Lord's side, and confessing 
Him as their Savior. 

On the muster-roll of "the noble army of martyrs" 
are many names of Chinese Christians, faithful unto 
death, noble as the noblest of them all. Here is a recent 
instance of martyrdom which shows how a Chinese 
Christian stands the ordeal of death : 

"In the district of Shantung a native catechist was 
seized by the Boxers, stripped, beaten, and bound. He 
was then asked, *Are you a Christian?' The firm an- 
swer was, 'Yes, I am,' At this reply one of his ears was 
cut off, and the question, 'Are you still a Christian?' 
was repeated. 'Yes/ was the answer; 7 am a follower of 
Christ.' Then the other ear was struck off, and the 
question was again repeated. For the third time the 
faithful soul confessed Christ, knowing well what would 
follow. A swift sword-stroke was the answer, the sev- 
ered head rolled on the ground, and the crown of mar- 
tyrdom was won. By hundreds and thousands the 
Chinese converts are ready, Hke this man, to seal their 
testimony with their blood." 

It requires moral courage right here in Christian 
America to be a faithful witness for the Lord Jesus. A 
prominent member of the Church, when a friend was 
visiting him, did not ask a blessing at the table. After 



CoAl.S I^ROM I^H"^ A1.TAR. 103 

the friend left, his wife said to him, ''Why didn't you 
ask a blessing at the table when the doctor was here?" 
"O/' said he, ''the doctor is not a Christian, and he do n't 
believe in religion/' "I am so sorry,'' said his wife, 
"that you did n't ask a blessing." That man was a 
moral coward. At the very time he ought to have been 
true to his convictions and loyal to his Divine Christ, 
he failed. If ever in the world he confessed Christ then 
was the very time he ought to have done so ; but instead 
of being true, he was false, and trailed in the dust the 
colors of his Lord and Master. 

Two little girls visited a convent in Baltimore. The 
Mother Superior met them with a smile, and said to 
one of them, "What are you, my child ?" The Httle girl 
folded her arms and replied, "I am a Catholic." "Thank 
God for that !" said the Mother Superior. Then turning 
to the other one, she said, "And what are you?" "I am 
a Methodist, and thank God for that!" said the child. 
I would place that little girl on the list of out-and-out 
Christians. Her courageous words had the ring of the 
right kind of metal. Are you a Christian? Be an out- 
and-out Christian. Hang your banner upon the outer 
wall. Fling your colors to the breeze. Let everybody 
know that you are on the Lord's side. 

A gentleman visited one of the large hospitals in an 
Eastern city. He said to the superintendent of nurses : 

"I wish you would give me the most remarkable in- 
cident in your hospital experience." 

"I can give you the most beautiful and touching in- 
cident in my hospital experience," said the lady. '*I 
do n't need to think very long for that." 

"All right. I shoukl like to hear it," said the man. 

"In another city where I was nursing, there was an 



I04 CoAi.s i^ROM the: Awar. 

awful accident^ and two lads were brought In fatally 
mangled. One of them died immediately after he was 
brought in. The other one had both of his legs badly 
crushed. The surgeon examined him, and found that 
the only hope for the boy's life was to have both legs 
amputated. 

" 'Tell me/ said the brave lad, 'am I to live or am 
I to die?' 

'' 'We shall hope for the best ; but the case is a 
doubtful one,' said the surgeon, tenderly. 

"As the lad heard his doom, his eyes grew large and 
filled with tears. He was only seventeen, but he showed 
the courage of a man. 

" 'If I must die, I have one request to make,' said 
the noble boy. 'I want to do it for the sake of my dead 
mother. I promised her I would, but I have kept put- 
ting it off all this while.' 

"We Hstened, wondering what the poor lad meant. 

" 'I want to make a public profession of my faith in 
Christ. I want a minister. I want to profess myself 
a Christian before I die.' 

"A minister was sent for. He came post-haste, with- 
out his hat. The boy welcomed him with a beautiful 
smile. The clergyman took his hand, and the boy 
said: 

" *I want to make here a public confession of my 
faith in Christ,' and then began. 'I believe' — he faltered, 
for he could hardly speak above a whisper he was so 
weak. Resting a moment he began again: 'I believe 
in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His 
only Son our Lord.' Then his strength failed. Resting 
a moment, then summoning up all his strength he began 
again: 7 believe' — With these blessed words upon his 
lips he passed away. 



CoAI.S FROM TH]^ A1.TAR. 105 

"The surgeon laid aside his knife, bowed his head, 
and wept. We all wept. That," said the lady, "was the 
most beautiful and touching incident in all my hospital 
experience.'' 

The most beautiful thing in all this world is a faithful 
witness of the Lord Jesus. There is nothing that so 
delights God and Christ and the angels as to see a 
Christian always loyal to his Lord and Master. Has 
God pardoned all your sins? Witness to the world that 
great fact. Has He sanctified you wholly? In meek- 
ness and humiHty, witness to the world this glorious 
fact, giving to Christ all the honor and all the glory, 
for "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and 
of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation ; 
of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He 
Cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." 
(Mark viii, 38.) 

VL Once more: The out-and-out Christian is not 
satisfied by simply being a Christian himself. He wants 
everybody else to be a Christian. Like this restored 
blind man, he is ready to say to every one : "Will ye also 
be His disciple?" That wonderful woman, Phoebe Pal- 
mer, who led twelve thousand souls to Christ for pardon 
during her life, and as many more into the experience 
of entire sanctification, said, "If I have one passion 
above another — and I have — that passion is a love for 
soul-winning." The out-and-out Christian has this pas- 
sion. 

Mr. Gladstone, the great English statesman, had this 
passion. Theodore Cuyler visited London. When he 
returned, he said in a speech in New York City, "With 
my own eyes I saw Mr. Gladstone bow on the sidewalk 
in the city of London, and pray for the conversion of 



io6 Coals from the Ai^tau. 

a little bootblack/' An old man swept the street cross- 
ings near the House of Parliament. One day he was 
missing. He was found by a missionary in a little attic- 
chamber, sick. The missionary said to him, ''Does any 
one ever come up here to see you?" ''O yes," said the 
old man, ''Mr. Gladstone comes up to see me. He has 
sat on that stool there and read to me the Bible." One 
of the greatest statesmen the world has ever known, 
considered it an honor and a privilege to go up into an 
attic, sit down on a stool, and read the Bible to a poor 
street-sweeper. 

An awful storm was raging off the coast of England. 
A vessel was wrecked. The lifeboat came in full. The 
question was asked: 

"Did you save all?" 

"All but one. Had no room for more." 

A young man hearing it said : 

"I will go after that man if two others will volunteer 
to go with me." 

His mother, standing by and hearing him, threw her 
arms around his neck, and said: 

"You must not go. One son is already lost, and if 
you go you will be lost." 

He tore himself away from his pleading mother, 
stepped into the lifeboat, pushed out into the angry 
sea, and away over the foaming billows he went to the 
wreck. In a little while he returned with the lost man. 
Nearing the shore he shouted : 

"Tell mother it is brother Will !" 

He had saved his own brother from a watery grave. 

Our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our friends, 
are wrecked upon the stormy sea of sin. They are in 
awful peril. We should go out after them with the life- 
boat of salvation. 



CoAI.S ^ROM the; AIvTAR. I07 

A few years ago Chaplain McCabe wrote the fol- 
lowing : 

''Abraham Lincoln once issued an order to the com- 
mander of every one of our great armies that, on a cer- 
tain day, there should be a 'forward movement.' What 
a day it was ! There was thunder all along the sky. 
There was victory everywhere. 

"The day is nigh at hand when the Christian Church 
shall no longer be content to 'hold the forts ;' but her 
victorious banners will be displayed on every battlefield 
between the gates of hell and the gates of heaven, in 
the very presence of the powers of darkness and the 
powers of light. O, that the glorious onset may come 
in our day ! Christians of this generation, what can we 
do to bring it about? It will be a blessed and a joyful 
memory throughout the eternal years of the heavenly 
life to have had a part in it. 

"One year ago I was sitting in a Kansas Conference. 
The bishop was calling the roll of the retired preachers — 
those not now in active service. He reached the name 
of Allen Buckner. The veteran stood up. He made a 
brief address to the Conference, and closed by saying, 
'I am now a wounded soldier and a superannuated 
preacher.' I happened to know his army record, and 
said, 'Bishop Mallalieu, that man led the assault up Mis- 
sionary Ridge thirty years ago.' 'Did he?' said the 
bishop. 'Give me your hand.' The whole Conference 
rose. Tears fell like rain. Somebody struck up 

*My country, 't is of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty.' 

The whole congregation pressed forward to grasp the 
veteran officer by the hand, who thirty years ago, amid 
a rain of bullets and the bursting of shell, far up among 



I08 C0AI.S F^ROM the: AWAR. 

the rocks of Missionary Ridge", had shouted to his sol- 
diers, 'Come on ! come on T That was the most des- 
perate deed of the war. Grant, who was present and 
looking on, said to Sheridan, 'Did you order that 
charge?' 'No/ said Sheridan, 'they are doing it them- 
selves.' " 

Jesus Christ is the Commander-in-Chief of the armies 
of earth and heaven. If every member of the Church 
were an out-and-out Christian, then the whole Church, 
under Divine orders, would move out to capture this 
world at once for God. 

The out-and-out Christian is sometimes called a 
"Mountain-top Christian.'' "These 'Mountain-top Chris- 
tians,' " says one, "are always the first to catch the 
gleams of the coming day. They tell us something won- 
derful is about to come to pass. Believe it. Think it. 
Express it." Yes, something wonderful is about to 
come to pass. The battle is already on. The highest 
honor that can come to any one below the skies is to be 
permitted to take a hand in the glorious conflict. Are 
you ready for the onset ? If not, get ready. Get ready 
now. 



Chapter VIIl. 

PREVAILING PRAYER. 

**And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, 
that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask 
anything in My name, I will do it." — ^John xiv, 13, 14. 

What are the conditions of prevailing prayer ? How 
are we to pray that our prayers may be answered ? It 
must be remembered that there is a great difference be- 
between saying prayers and praying. Thousands of 
prayers have been said that have never been answered. 
But no true prayer that has ever been offered to God, 
from the days of Adam to the present hour, but what 
has been answered. The answer may not always come 
in our own way and in our own time ; but God in His 
own way, and His own time, answers every faithful 
prayer. What, then, are the conditions of prevailing 
prayer ? 

I. All sin must be put away. 

David says: "I will wash mine hands in innocency: 
so will I compass thine altar, O Lord." (Psa. xxvi, 6.) 
Washing the hands among the Romans was considered 
a symbol of innocence. Pilate washed his hands as a 
symbol of his innocence of the murder of Christ. 

In Hindoo temples there is a vessel filled with water 
at the entrance for the worshipers to wash their hands. 
They feel that they must be clean and innocent in ap- 

109 



no C0AI.S FROM THE A1.TAR. 

preaching the altar of their gods. So when we come 
into the presence of our God in prayer — when we com- 
pass the divine altar, if we would have our prayers an- 
swered, all sin must be put away. 

Again says David, ''If I regard iniquity in my heart 
the Lord will not hear me." (Psa. Ixvi, 18.) If sin is 
in the heart, and we know it, and harbor it, and are not 
willing to give it up, our prayer will be in vain. The 
prayer of the wicked, so long as he is not willing to give 
up sin, is an abomination to the Lord. 

Solomon says, ''He that turneth away his ears from 
hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." 
(Prov. xxviii, 9.) 

It is said the lodestone loses all its virtue when be- 
smeared with garlic ; so our prayers lose all their influ- 
ence and power when the heart is covered with sin. Sin 
is the obstacle that stops our prayers under full sail to 
the throne. A man may cry in vain for the surgeon 
to give him ease so long as he is not willing to have the 
arrow-head removed. So a man may cry in vain for 
God to hear and answer his prayer so long as he is not 
willing to give up all sin. If, therefore, you would have 
your prayers answered, you must put away all sin. 
Do n't hold on to anything that is wrong. God answers 
prayer only when all sin is at once and forever aban- 
doned. 

11. Obey God. John says, ''Whatsoever we ask we 
receive of Him, because we keep his commandments, 
and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." 
(i John iii, 22.) 

First, put away all sin. Second, do what God com- 
mands. Is any duty left undone? Leave it undone no 
longer. Have you shunned any cross ? Shun that cross 



CoAI.S I^ROM the: A1.TAR. Ill 

no longer. Say in your heart: ''By God's help, I will 
discharge every known duty. I will make any sacrifice 
the Master wants me to make. I will shun no cross. 
I will evade no responsibiHty. From this time, hence- 
forth and forever, I will obey every one of the Divine 
commands." 

III. If you would have your prayers answered, you 
must abide in Christ, 

Christ says, ''If ye abide in Me, and My words abide 
in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done 
unto you.'' (John xv, 7.) 

Abide in Him. How ? As the branch abides in the 
vine. 

1. The branch derives its Hfe_, strength, and fruit 
from the vine. So we derive our spiritual life, our 
strength, our fruit, all from Christ the vine. Sever the 
branch from the vine, and it withers and dies. Its life, 
strength, and fruit are all gone. We abide in Christ by 
a living faith. Let that living faith be severed by doubt 
or disobedience, and we die spiritually. 

2. The branch is part of the vine, one with the vine, 
and of the very same nature of the vine. The sap, the 
bark, the fiber, the leaves, the fruit, all are just like the 
vine. So if we abide in Christ we are like Christ, and 
are one with Him. We are one with Him in life, nature, 
strength, and fruit. 

An apple branch bears apples, a peach branch bears 
peaches, a plum branch bears plums ; and if you are a 
branch of the true vine — the Lord Jesus Christ — the 
fruit you bear will be souls. If you abide in Christ, and 
His words abide in you, you will bear fruit, and you will 
see your fruit in the salvation of your relatives, neigh- 
bors, and friends. If every member of the Church were 



112 CoAIvS ^ROM the: AI.TAR. 

abiding in Christ, then every member would be a soul- 
winner. 

David prayed, saying: ''Create in me a clean heart, 

God : and renew a right spirit within me. Then will 

1 teach transgressors Thy ways ; and sinners shall be 
converted unto Thee." (Psa. li, lo, 13.) More than 
thirty years ago, a lady, a leading member of a Church 
in Nebraska, was convicted for heart-purity. Her hus- 
band was unconverted. He was a man of the world. 
She sought and found the coveted prize. Then she saw 
the danger of her husband and became interested in his 
salvation as never before. Shortly after her sanctifica- 
tion the Spirit said to her, ''You ought to have family 
prayer." She was startled at the thought, and said, 
"Why, Lord, I can't have family prayer; my husband 
is not a Christian." Then she remembered that she told 
the Lord, when seeking holiness, that if He would only 
give her the blessing she would do anything He told 
her to do, and she said, "Lord, I will try." The next 
morning she said to her husband: "I feel it my duty 
to have family prayer. Our children are growing up 
around us, and I do n't want them, in after years, to say 
'I never heard my parents pray.' " "All right," said the 
husband, "I am perfectly willing that you should." He 
sat down and listened to his wife read a chapter in the 
Bible, then knelt down and heard his wife pray. A 
peculiar feeling came over him as his wife read and 
prayed. In three weeks that man was clearly and power- 
fully converted, and for thirty years has been a leading 
and active official member of one of the largest Churches 
in Nebraska. 

IV. Our prayers must be for the glory of God. 
Daniel prayed, saying, "O Lord, hear : O Lord, for- 



CoAIvS FROM THE A1.TAR. II3 

give ; O Lord, hearken and do ; defer not, for Thine own 
sake, O my God/*' (Dan. ix, 19.) And this must be our 
plea: ''For Thine own sake, O God, for Thine own 
glory do we desire this/' 

God is often glorified in a way entirely different from 
what we expect. So He does not always answer our 
prayers just as we desire to have them answered. 

Lazarus was sick at Bethany. Mary and Martha 
sent word to the Savior informing Him of the fact. And 
what was the message they sent to the Master? It was 
a very brief and a very simple message : ''Lord, behold, 
he whom Thou lovest is sick." (John xi, 3.) Nothing 
could be more modest and simple than this prayer. 
They simply state the case without making any demand. 
The argument is indirect; but it is the most powerful, 
and it shows their unbounded confidence in the Lord 
Jesus. He is sick. You love him and us, and we know 
You will not abandon him nor us. 

The record tells us that Jesus loved Martha and her 
sister and Lazarus. He loved them with a deep, tender, 
ardent, lasting love. But notwithstanding all this, He 
let Lazarus die, and four days afterwards went to the 
grave with the weeping friends, and as He saw their 
tears and their sorrow. His great heart of love and sym- 
pathy and tenderness was touched, and He wept with 
the bereaved. Here we see His humanity. Then He 
manifested His Divinity. He said to the attendants, 
"Take away the stone.'' The stone was rolled away, 
and Jesus said, "Lazarus, come forth/' The grave 
yielded up its victim, and Lazarus came forth bound 
with the grave-clothes. "Loose him, and let him go,'* 
said the Savior. Then there was joy and gladness in 
that home such as there had not been for many a day. 
The whole scene was changed, and all their sorrow and 
8 



114 CoAIvS I^ROM THE Al,TAR. 

mourning was turned to joy. Christ was glorified, and 
His power and love were manifested as they could not 
have been had he not permitted Lazarus to die. So 
God does not always answer our prayers just as we want 
them answered. 

I once heard Bishop Bowman relate the following 
touching the death of his little child : 

*'I remember, when death came into my family, I 
said, 'I can not spare this little one ; she is bound up 
with my spiritual life and my ministerial usefulness.' 
I pleaded and agonized for her recovery, and yet God 
saw fit to allow her to be taken. Now I can look back 
to that which seemed to be the greatest calamity of my 
life, as one of the greatest blessings of my life. My 
ministerial character and usefulness have been extended 
and exalted beyond my conception by this sanctified 
affliction through which I was called to pass. My other 
children as they have grown up have given me pain as 
well as pleasure; but that one has left only a bright, 
beautiful, and joyous place in my heart, Hke to the joy 
of the upper sanctuary.'' 

James tells us why so many of our prayers are not 
answered: ''Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask 
amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." (James 
iv, 3.) Here is the reason why so many prayers are not 
answered. Selfishness is at the bottom of these prayers. 

The spirit of selfishness was seen in the elders who 
went to the' Savior in behalf of the centurion's servant. 
The centurion's servant was sick and ready to die. The 
centurion requested the elders to go and ask the Savior 
to come and heal his servant. What were the arguments 
these elders used in order to induce the Savior to go 
and heal the servant? 



COAIvS FROM the: AWAR. II5 

First. He was a centurion, a military man, captain 
of a hundred men. He was, therefore, a man of rank, 
of dignity, and of honor. 

''Second. He was worthy. 'He is worthy for whom 
you should do this.' 

"Third. He is a rich man. Now, Lord, he is not 
only worthy, and not only a man of rank, of dignity, and 
of honor, but he is a rich man. 'He loveth our nation, 
and hath built us a synagogue.' '' 

This same spirit of selfishness crops out at the pres- 
ent day, in Churches and among ministers. "If we can 
only get Mr. A. converted, he will be a great help to us 
financially. If we can only get Mrs. B. converted, she 
will be a great help to us. She moves in the highest 
circles of society, and if we can just get her converted 
she will give tone and dignity to our Church.'' Away 
with all such nonsense ! God never will answer our 
prayers when offered with such a selfish motive as that 
in view. Now, we want that rich man converted. I 
have sometimes thought we overlook the rich more than 
we do the poor. We want that rich man converted, not 
for his money, but that his soul may be saved and God 
honored and glorified. We want that society lady con- 
verted too, not that she may give prestige to our 
Church, but that she may be saved, and know what 
genuine happiness here on earth is, and be prepared for 
a higher and happier destiny beyond the stars. When 
this centurion heard what the elders had been saying, 
he hurried away his servants to contradict their state- 
ment. "Why, Lord, these elders have been making 
statements to You that are not true. They have told 
You that I am worthy. That is not true, not a bit of 
it. I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under 



Il6 C0AI.S P^ROM THE AlvTAR. 

my roof, but say in a word and my servant shall be 
healed/' (Luke vii, 6, 7.) 

V. Another condition of prevailing prayer is agree- 
ment. We must be agreed. 

''If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any- 
thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of 
My Father which is in heaven." (Matt, xviii, 19.) It 
is a law in the spiritual realm that two prayers united 
have more power than one, five more than two, ten more 
than five, twenty more than ten, and fifty more than 
twenty. We have seen that exemplified at camp-meet- 
ings and in revivals. It was seen on the day of Pente- 
cost. The one hundred and twenty were all of one 
accord. They were agreed, and the result was, they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and three thousand 
souls were converted and swept into the kingdom in a 
day. Fifty godly men and women united in prayer and 
agreed, will shake any community to its center with a 
heavenly power that will make sinners tremble and quail, 
and cry, "What shall we do ?" 

Years ago, while Whittle and Bliss were holding re- 
vival meetings in St. Paul, Minnesota, a lady went to 
Mr. Whittle and asked him to join her in prayer for the 
conversion of her unsaved husband. They shook hands 
and agreed that the husband should be saved. In 
twenty-four hours the husband was gloriously saved. 

Some forty years ago there lived in Omaha a noted 
infidel. His wife was a devoted Christian. This infidel 
took sick. He grew worse and worse. His wife became 
alarmed, especially about his soul. She was impressed 
that he would not live, and she knew that he was un- 
prepared to die. She sent for two laymen, Robert Lang 
and J. W. Tousley, to come and talk with and pray for 



CoAI.S I^ROM THE) A1.TAR. II7 

him. I have this incident from Brother Lang's own 
lips. When they reached the door Brother Lang said: 
''Brother Tousley, God says, Where two agree on earth 
as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done 
for them of My Father which is in heaven. Are we 
agreed that this man shall be converted?'' ''Yes," said 
Brother Tousley; and they went in. The sick man re- 
ceived them coldly. They spoke to him about his soul. 
"How do you know man has a soul?" said he. Then 
they spoke of God's infinite love. "How do you know 
there is a God? I don't believe there is," said he. 
They sang a number of hymns, and then asked him if 
he would Hke to have them pray for him. "If you want 
to pray I shall not object, but you need not pray for 
me." They prayed, and then they sang again, and when 
they were about to leave they asked him if he would like 
to have them come back and see him again. Pie replied : 
"I am not particular. Do just as you please about it." 
As they walked away from the house, Brother Tousley 
said, "Brother Lang, my faith has slipped." "Mine has 
not," said Brother Lang. "I beHeve that man will be 
converted." 

The next day they went back, and found him just 
as indifferent as ever. They sang a number of hymns, 
then prayed ; then they sang again, and talked with 
him for a long time, and were about to leave, when all 
at once he broke down and wept like a child. "Why," 
said he, "I am a sinner. I am an awful sinner. I never 
saw it as I now see it. Pray for me. Ask God to have 
mercy upon me, a sinner." They knelt down and 
prayed, and while they were praying the man was power- 
fully converted. In a few days afterwards he died tri- 
umphant, and went shouting home to glory. 

"If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any- 



Il8 C0AI.S FROM the: A1.TAR. 

thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of 
My Father which is in heaven." 

About thirty years ago I became intimately ac- 
quainted with a devoted Christian family living in Butler 
County, Nebraska. The husband was a local preacher, 
and one of the excellent men of the earth. His wife 
was one of the royal line, and wholly consecrated to 
God. They had a son who was one of the first gradu- 
ates from the University of Nebraska. He was a bril- 
Hant young man, and graduated with great honor. Dur- 
ing his university course he imbibed the doctrines of 
infidelity, and went home a confirmed infidel. This al- 
most broke the hearts of the fond parents. A few 
months after Commencement, the mother went East to 
attend a national holiness camp-meeting, held at Ocean 
Grove. While there she met Amanda Smith, the col- 
ored evangelist. She told Mrs. Smith all about her son ; 
how he had graduated with honor from the university, 
but had come home an infidel. ''Now," said she, ''Sister 
Smith, I want you to join me in prayer for his conver- 
sion, and I want you to agree with me that he shall be 
converted." "O yes," said Sister Smith, "I will." So 
they agreed that the son should be saved. What was 
the result? In a few weeks afterwards that son was a 
penitent at the altar, and was clearly converted, and for 
thirty years has been one of the most successful soul- 
winners in the State of Nebraska. Only a few months 
ago I met that son, and heard him sing and talk and 
pray. Glory be to God for ever and ever ! 

Then, God often hears and answers prayer in the 
physical realm. I might give many instances. I will 
give but one. 

Four years ago I went out to hold quarterly-meeting 
at Friend. When I left home, on Saturday, our oldest 



CoAI.S i^ROM THE Al,TAR. II9 

daughter, Allie, was suffering with neuralgia. On my 
return, Monday at one o'clock, my wife met me at the 
door, and said: ''Allie has had the severest attack of 
neuralgia she has ever had in her hfe. She has not slept 
any since you left. The doctor has not been able to give 
her anything that would reheve her. Hypodermic injec- 
tions of morphine have no effect upon her whatever." 
My wife went back upstairs, and I went into the front 
room alone. Silently I Hfted my heart to God in prayer, 
when a voice seemed to say to me, ''This may be for 
the glory of God.'' After having prayed and steadied 
my faith, I went upstairs. AlHe was moaning with in- 
tense agony. I opened my Bible and turned to Matthew 
xviii, 19, and said to my wife: "Ma, here is what God 
says, 'If two of you shall agree on earth as touching 
anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them 
of My Father which is in heaven.' Will you agree with 
me that Alhe shall be relieved ?" "Yes," was her reply. 
We knelt down, and I offered a prayer about two min- 
utes long, closing with these words: "O God, we ask 
You, in the name and for the sake of Thine only be- 
gotten Son, and for Thy glory, to reheve Allie. You 
will do it. Amen." 

The pain instantly left her, and she fell into a sweet 
sleep, and slept all the afternoon, all night, and nearly 
all next day and night. She had not slept any for sev- 
eral days, and it took some time for her to catch up. 
After we had prayed, my wife went downstairs, threw 
herself on the couch, and slept for two hours ; for she 
was completely exhausted from her efforts to relieve 
Allie. Then she came upstairs and said, "How is Allie?" 
I replied, "She has been sleeping sweetly ever since we 
prayed." I remained in the room all that afternoon, 
and it seemed to me that I could just feel the hush of 



I20 COAI.S FROM THE A1.TAR. 

heaven, so near was our Divine Christ to us. ''If two 
of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that 
they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father 
which is in heaven." Hallelujah! The great trouble 
with many is, they do n't beHeve God means what He 
says. They insult the Almighty by calling in question 
His clear and positive promises. If men beheved that 
God means just what He says in His Word, there would 
be answers to prayer Hke the foregoing right along, and 
they w^ould not be considered marvelous at all. 

VI. If you would prevail with God in prayer, pray 
in the power of Jesus' name. 

''If ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it." 
"Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, 
that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (John 
xiv, 13, 14.) 

During the great Rebellion two boys went into the 
army. They belonged to the same regiment, the same 
company, and the same mess. They became very much 
attached to each other. They were almost like David 
and Jonathan, they loved each other so well. About a 
year after they had enHsted, one of them got a furlough 
that he might go and transact some very important busi- 
ness in a village in IlHnois. Just as he was about to 
leave, his chum said to him: "My father lives in that 
village. I will give you a letter of introduction to him. 
He is a lawyer, and will assist you in your business." 
He took the letter, and, on reaching the village, went 
to the office of his chum's father. He entered the office 
and inquired for Mr. Blank. "^Ir. Blank is very busy. 
He can't see you nor any one else to-day," said a young 
man who sat in the office reading. The young soldier 
took from his pocket his chum's letter, handed it to the 



CoAIvS FROM TH^ A1.TAR. 121 

young man, saying, ''Will you kindly give this to Mr. 
Blank?'' The young man took the letter, passed into 
another room, and gave it to Mr. Blank. Mr. Blank 
opened the letter^ and read something like the fol- 
lowing : 

''Dear Father, — This will introduce you to my very 
dear friend. Please favor him for Charley's sake. 
"Your Son, Chari^ey." 

Mr. Blank was startled, rose to his feet, and said to 
the young man, "Go and tell that soldier to come in." 
A moment afterwards the soldier was ushered into the 
genial presence of Mr. Blank. Mr. Blank arose some- 
what excited, and, grasping the young soldier's hand, 
greeted him in a most cordial manner. 

"Sit down, sit down," said Mr. Blank. "You are a 
friend of my son." 

"O yes, we are chums. Your son is the best friend 
I ever had." 

Mr. Blank took that soldier to his own home, gave 
him the best foom in his fine mansion, treated him like 
a prince, and transacted all his legal business for him 
without charging him a cent, all for his son Charley's 
sake. 

Would you have your prayers answered? Go to 
God in the power of Jesus' name, and the Father will 
grant your requests for His Son's sake. "Whatsoever 
ye shall ask in My name, that will I do." 

VII. Once more: Another condition of prevailing 
prayer is faith. "Let him ask in faith, nothing waver- 
ing." (James i, 6.) 

"What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe" 



122 C0AI.S F^ROM THE) AlTAR. 

that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 
ix, 24.) Faith is the key that opens heaven to the soul. 

In the days of the Reformation a crisis came. 
Luther's friends gave up in despair. All hope left them. 
But Luther's faith did not waver. He wrestled alone 
with God in His closet till, like Jacob, he prevailed. 
Then he went into the room where his family were 
assembled, with joyous heart and shining face, and lift- 
ing both hands and raising his eyes heavenward, ex- 
claimed, ''We have overcome ! we have overcome !'' 
And so it afterwards proved, that just at that time the 
Emperor Charles V issued his proclamation of religious 
toleration throughout Germany. 

John Knox was a man of prayer and a man of faith. 
He had a little inclosure near his house where he was 
in the habit of retiring for secret prayer. A friend was 
anxious to hear Knox in his closet ; so one night, after 
Knox had gone to his accustomed place of prayer, this 
friend quietly followed him, and sitting down on the 
outside, listened. At length he heard Knox exclaim, 
''O Lord, give me Scotland or I die." Then all was 
silent. In a little while the silence was broken by the 
voice of Knox as he exclaimed more earnestly than be- 
fore, ''O Lord, give me Scotland or I die." Again all 
was quiet, and again the quietness was broken by the 
voice of Knox as he exclaimed in an agony, and with 
greater earnestness than ever, ''O Lord, give me Scot- 
land, or I die !" God answered that prayer, and gave 
Knox Scotland in spite of bloody Mary and her popish 
emissaries. 

A writer in the Christian at Work relates the fol- 
lowing : The Fulton Street prayer-meeting in New York 
brings out some thrilling incidents. A gentleman came 
into the prayer-meeting when it was about half out, 



CoAI.S I^ROM the: A1.TAR. 123 

took from his pocket a letter, and laid it on the desk of 
the leader, and, turning to the audience, said: "I am a 
Methodist minister, and have just been appointed to a 
special service in California. My work will keep me 
there a year or more. A devoted Christian mother, 
hearing of my appointment, gave me this letter, saying : 
'I have a son somewhere in California. I have not 
heard from him for many months. I fear he has become 
dissipated, and is ashamed to write to his mother. I 
want you to take this letter, and when you reach Cali- 
fornia inquire, wherever you go, for my boy, and when 
you find him, give him this letter, and tell him it is from 
his mother.' Now," said the minister to the audience, 
'^I want you to pray that God may help me find that 
boy, and that this letter may be the means of his sal- 
vation." The effect on the audience was overwhelming. 
Strong men wept hke little children, and such prayers 
as were then offered for the finding of that boy I never 
heard in all my life before. 

A little more than a year from that time, says the 
writer, I was in a prayer-meeing in Philadelphia, when 
that same minister came in and told the thrilling story 
of finding that boy. He said he carried the letter in his 
pocket for many months, everywhere inquiring for the 
boy. *'At last," said the preacher, "I found him. He 
was at a gambling saloon in Sacramento. He was 
pointed out to me, and I went up to him and said, 'I 
would Hke to speak to you.' 'Wait,' said he, 'until I 
finish this game, and I will go with you.' When the 
game was through we stepped out where no one could 
see or hear us, and I gave him the letter, saying, 'This 
is from your mother.' The young man turned deathly 
pale, and trembled all over. 'O,' said he *1 can't take 
that letter.' 'But you must. I have been looking for 



124 COAI.S I^ROM the; AIvTAR. 

you for nearly a year. I can't have a year's work 
thrown away/ With trembling hands he opened the 
letter, and as he read he groaned aloud, saying: 'I am 
ruined forever. I am a drunkard. I have disgraced my 
mother and disgraced all my relatives and friends, and 
have disgraced myself. O, what shall I do? I am a 
poor undone wretch !' 'I want you to get right down 
on your knees where you are, and sign this pledge that 
you will never touch another drop of Hquor while you 
live.' He fell upon his knees in an instant, and signed 
the pledge. 'Now, are you willing to kneel right here 
and now, pledge yourself to Jesus Christ that you will 
be His now and forever?' 'Yes,' he answered, 'I am 
wilHng.' 'Then, kneel right down beside me, and I 
will pray first, asking God to lead your mind and heart 
in all you do in this solemn hour.' We knelt together 
so close that my shoulder touched his. I prayed. I 
do n't know what I said, but the Holy Ghost was won- 
derfully poured out upon us. Then he prayed, and this 
was the prayer he offered: 'O God, hear my mother's 
prayer, and save my soul.' We arose, and he threw his 
arms around my neck, and wept like a child, saying, 
'God has forgiven me.' Then he wrote his mother all 
about it, and he is now a devoted Christian." 

Such prayer as a mother can oft'er, and such faith 
as a mother can exercise, God never will disappoint. In 
His own time and way, God will reward her faith and 
answer her prayers. O mothers ! mothers ! never give 
up your children. Never leave off praying. Never, — 
never ! 

A very wicked man was converted. A friend met 
him shortly afterwards, and said: "How is it that you 
became a Christian? You are the last man on earth 
that I would have thought would have taken such a step 



Coals :f^rom the Awar. 125 

as this/' "Well/' said the man, ''the only possible way 
that I can account for my having become a Christian is, 
that I have a praying mother. I think she must have 
got hold of God in prayer, held on, never let go, and 
something had to give way, and I was converted/' 

O mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, hus- 
bands, get hold of God in prayer ; hold on ; never let go. 
Something will give way, and you will have the unspeak- 
able joy of seeing your loved ones swept into the king- 
dom. 

Here, then, are the conditions of prevailing prayer: 
Put away all sin; obey God; abide in Christ; have the 
glory of God in view when you pray; be agreed; offer 
your prayer in the power of Jesus' name, and offer your 
prayer in faith, and the windows of heaven will open, 
and salvation in floods will come to you and to your un- 
saved loved ones. /' 



Chapter IX. 

CHRISTIAN CERTAINTY. 

''That thou mightest know the certainty of those things 
wherein thou hast been instructed." — Luke; i, 4. 

TheophiIvUS was a Greek or Roman of high stand- 
ing. He had received from others many accounts 
touching our Savior, but in these accounts there were 
many inaccuracies. Luke had the most perfect knowl- 
edge of the history of Christ from the very beginning, 
and under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost made it 
known, not only for the benefit of Theophilus, but for 
the whole world as well. ''Having had perfect under- 
standing of all these things from the first" — namely, the 
advent, sufferings, miracles, death, and resurrection of 
Christ — it was a very pleasant task for him to write the 
same to his ''most excellent Theophilus.'' And in the 
text we have the reason given: "That thou mightest 
know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast 
been instructed.'' Certainty brings rest ; uncertainty 
brings unrest. Doubt brings anxiety ; anxiety fear, and 
fear takes away happiness. 

Others may proclaim to the world their doubts ; it 
is for the Christian to proclaim to the world certainties. 
Others may go through the world burdened with anx- 

126 



CoAivS i^ROM The: AivTar. 127 

iety and oppressed with fear ; the Christian goes through 
the world free from anxiety and reheved from all fear. 
Free as the bird soaring away to the skies, singing upon 
the wings of liberty, is the saved soul. 

Of what is the Christian certain? What are some of 
the things about which the Christian has no doubts 
whatever? What are some of the things about which 
he is just as indubitably certain as he is of his own 
existence ? 

I. The Christian is certain the Bible is the Word of 
God. It is an inspired Book. It is God-given. 

Paul says, ''AH Scripture is given by inspiration of 
God.'' (2 Timothy iii, 16.) Peter tells us that ''holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost.'' (2 Peter i, 21.) Ages and ages ago the prophets 
spoke just as the Spirit directed them. Afterwards the 
apostles and evangelists spoke under the same Divine 
afflatus. What the writers of the Old and New Testa- 
ments say is from God. Whether they recite the mys- 
teries of the past, more ancient than the creation, or 
those of the future, more distant than the coming of 
the Son of man ; whether they speak of the deep things 
of God, or the tender emotions of the human heart, it 
is always God who speaks, God who ordains, God who 
directs ; for the Spirit of the Lord God was upon them. 

In the South Sea Islands, Christianity swept every- 
thing before it, as it is now doing in many heathen 
lands. Some of these native Christians were asked by 
the missionary if they believed the Bible and why they 
believed the Bible to be the Word of God. They were 
astonished at the question, for they never had a doubt 
about it. After a moment's pause one of them said, 
*'Most certainly we do." 



128 COAI.S I^ROM the: AlTAR. 

''Can you give any reason for believing the Bible to 
be the Word of God?" 

He replied: 'Xook at the power with which it has 
been attended in the utter overthrow of all that we have 
been addicted to from time immemorial. No human 
arguments could have induced us to abandon that false' 
system." 

Another replied : ''I believe the Bible to be the Word 
of God on account of the pure system of religion it con- 
tains. What but the wisdom of God could have pro- 
duced such a system as this presented to us in the Word 
of God? And this doctrine leads to purity." 

A third repHed : ''When I look at myself, I find that 
I have got hinges all over my body. I have hinges 
to my legs, hinges to my jaws, hinges to my feet. When 
I want to take hold of anything there are hinges to do 
it with. If my heart thinks and I want to speak, I have 
hinges to my jaws. If I want to walk, I have hinges 
to my feet. Here," he continued, "is wisdom adjusting 
my body to the various functions it has to discharge. 
And I find that the wisdom which made the Bible ex- 
actly fits with the wisdom which has made my body; 
consequently I believe the Bible to be the Word of 
God." 

A fourth repHed : "I believe the Bible to be the Word 
of God, because of the many prophecies it contains and 
the fulfillment of them." 

Here, by these simple South Sea Islanders, are pre- 
sented to our view, in a nutshell, the great arguments 
proving the inspiration of the Scriptures — arguments 
that the wisdom of the unbelieving world has never 
been able to overthrow. 

The evidence we have of the inspiration of the Scrip- 



C0AI.S I^'ROM the: Ai,TAR. 



129 



tures is as clear as the sun shining in his meridian 
splendor. Inspiration is the foundation of our faith, the 
foundation of our hope, the foundation of all that is 
good and dear to us here and hereafter. It is the 
granite rock on which we stand, and, standing here, we 
feel perfectly secure. 

"On the rock of ages founded, 

Who can shake our firm repose? 
With salvation's walls surrounded, 
We can smile at all our foes." 

II. Another thing of which the Christian is certain, 
is redemption. 

The Bible, the truth of which we are certain, teaches 
us that while we are a race fallen, we are also a race 
redeemed ; while we are a race ruined by sin, we are not 
hopelessly ruined. For sin there is a remedy; for the 
sinner there is a Savior. 

Fifteen hundred years before the coming of Christ, 
Job spoke with absolute certainty touching his redemp- 
tion. He did not say, ''I hope;" he did not say, ''I 
expect;" he did not say, "I believe;" but in the most 
positive language cried out, *'I know that my Redeemer 
liveth." Isaiah, on whom the spirit of prophecy emi- 
nently rested, spoke with the same certainty: "Unto us 
a child is born, unto us a Son is given. His name shall 
be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The 
Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." 

Zechariah, whose prophetic eye took in the far dis- 
tant future, saw "a fountain opened in the house of 
David for sin and uncleanness." In this cleansing foun- 
tain a sinful world may wash and be clean. 

Paul speaks with the same certainty. He says ; "Wc 
9 



130 CoAIvS FROM the: Ai^TAR. 

are redeemed, not with corruptible things such as silver 
and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ ;" "Christ 
gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all 
iniquity." The Bible tells us there was such a man as 
Jesus Christ; that He lived a life of spotless purity, 
wrought miracles, sufifered and died for man's redemp- 
tion. What the Bible teaches with regard to Christ, all 
history corroborates. 

in. The Christian is certain that all his sins are for- 
given. "As far as the east is from the west, so far 
hath he removed our transgressions from us.'' (Psalm 
ciii, 12.) 

God's people, all along the ages, have had the cer- 
tainty of present salvation. For three hundred years 
Enoch had the testimony "that he pleased God." David 
was certain of his salvation. His language is positive: 
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He 
maketh me to He down in green pastures; He leadeth 
me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; He 
leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's 
sake." Wondrous words ! He saves me, He leads me. 
He guides me. He protects me ; hence all is well. 

Isaiah had the same certainty : "O Lord, I will praise 
Thee. Though Thou wast angry with me. Thine anger 
is turned away, and Thou comfortest me. Behold, God 
is my salvation." Doubts touching his salvation were 
all gone, and the evidence of his salvation was as clear 
as the noonday sun. 

Paul is positive: "Because ye are sons, God hath 
sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, 
Abba, Father." When the eternal Spirit comes and 
attests to the heart the great fact of heirship with Christ, 



Coals i^rom the: Altar. 131 

then doubts are all gone, fears are all gone, anxiety is 
all gone, and the peace of God that ''passeth all under- 
standing" takes full possession of the soul. 

You may believe that it is the privilege of the Chris- 
tian to be certain of present salvation ; but if you would 
have the experience you must meet the conditions. 
Franklin believed that lightning and electricity were one 
and the same physical force long before it was an estab- 
lished certainty. He believed it, but did not know it, 
because it had not been proved. He prepared his kite, 
with the iron point fastened to the piece of cedar run- 
ning through it, to the lower end of which was fastened 
the hempen cord. He went out on the commons, near 
Philadelphia, just before a thunder-storm, taking with 
him his little boy, to whom he told his intentions. As 
the kite rose he let out the cord. At the lower end he 
fastened a key ; to the ring of the key he tied a ribbon, 
that he might hold it with safety. Then he watched 
with intense anxiety. Methinks his heart beat more 
rapidly than ever before. The thunder rolled. The 
vivid lightning played above him. The suspense of his 
mind became more and more intense. At length he saw 
the hempen fibers near the key bristle and stand on end. 
He presented his knuckle to the key and received a 
strong, bright spark. That which he had long beheved 
now was certain ; and soon all the world knew it. Meet 
the conditions as Franklin met the conditions. Re- 
nounce all sin ; surrender unconditionally to Christ, and 
believe on Him as a present, personal Savior, and just 
as certainly as the electric flash from the thundercloud 
touched the knuckle of Franklin, so sure will the Spirit 
from the Eternal God touch your heart, and all doubt 
as to your present salvation will flee away. 



132 CoAivS i^ROM th:^ AIvTAR. 

IV. The Christian may be certain of his entire sanc- 
tification. He may know that he is sanctified just as 
surely as he knows that he is justified. 

Sanctification is a very high and glorious state of 
grace, and it brings to the heart a peace and joy that 
no language can describe. Paul says, ''Eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart 
of man, the things which God hath prepared for them 
that love Him." (i Cor. ii, 9.) Some think this refers 
to the joys of the saved in heaven; but this is a great 
mistake, for in the very next verse the apostle says, 
''But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit,'' 
right here and now. 

When the Holy Ghost reveals to the heart the great 
fact that "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth 
us from all sin,'' then there comes into the heart this 
unearthly light, joy, and peace. The Word of God gives 
no uncertain sound touching the certainty of entire 
sanctification. "For by one offering He hath perfected 
forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy 
Ghost also is a witness to us." (Hebrews x, 14, 15.) 

V. Another thing of which the Christian is certain 
is a glorious resurrection. Job had this certainty: 
"Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet 
in my flesh shall I see God." David had this certainty: 
"I will behold Thy face in righteousness." Daniel was 
just as confident: "Them that sleep in the dust of the 
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to 
shame and everlasting contempt." Paul had this cer- 
tainty : "Our conversation is in heaven, from whence we 
also look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like 
unto His glorious body, according to the working 



COAI.S li^ROM Tat AlvTAR. I33 

whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself." 
John had this certainty: ''It doth not appear what we 
shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we 
shall be like him." 

Our Savior declares : ''The hour is coming, in which 
all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall 
come forth," etc. Christ has not only declared to the 
world that all who are in their graves shall come forth 
on the resurrection morn, but He has given to the world 
a pledge. After His crucifixion and burial He arose 
from the grave; and after His resurrection "He was 
seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that He was 
seen of above five hundred brethren at once. After that 
He was seen of James, then of all the apostles." 

Says Paul: "Now is Christ risen and become the 
firstfruits of them that slept." St. John the Divine was 
banished to the lonely isle of Patmos "for the Word 
of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ," and while 
there, alone on that rocky, sea-girt isle, he says: "I was 
in the spirit on the Lord's-day, and heard behind me a 
great voice as of a trumpet, and I turned to see the 
voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw 
seven golden candlesticks, one like unto the Son of 
man." That majestic person that stood before John 
on that memorable occasion was clothed with a heavenly 
garment, and around Him was a "golden girdle." "His 
eyes were as a flame of fire, and His feet like unto 
fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace. And when I 
saw Him I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His 
right hand upon me, saying unto me. Fear not. I am 
He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for 
evermore." The risen Redeemer stood in the presence 
of John on Patmos. John saw and heard Him, and what 
he saw and heard he wrote down for the benefit of sue- 



134 CoAIvS FROM THE Al,TAR. 

ceeding ages. It is a matter of history, and we have 
read it time and again. 

"He lives, He lives who once was dead, 
He lives my everlasting head! . . . 
He lives my mansion to prepare, 
He lives to bring me safely there/' 

"Decay, then, tenements of dust! 
Pillars of earthly pride, decay! 
A nobler mansion waits the just. 
And Jesus has prepared the way." 

The Christian is certain he will live forever with 
God in glory. David says : ''Thou shall guide me with 
Thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory." The 
infinite longings of the immortal mind find perfect satis- 
faction in the positive promises of the Bible touching 
immortality. 

"The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, 
The sun forbear to shine; 
But God, who called me here below. 
Shall be forever mine." 

"The sun is but a spark of fire, 
A tratisient meteor in the sky: 
The soul, immortal as its sire, 
Shall never die." 

Victor Hugo, the revered poet of France, most beau- 
tifully expressed his certainty touching immortahty: 
''I feel in myself the future Hfe. I am hke a forest 
which has been more than once cut down. The new 
shoots are stronger and liveHer than ever. I am rising, 
I know, toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. 
You say the soul is nothing but the resultant of bodily 
powers. Why, then, is the soul more luminous when 



CoAI.S ]^ROM THE AWAR. I35 

my bodily powers begin to fail ? Winter is on my head, 
and eternal spring is in my heart. The nearer I ap- 
proach the end, the plainer I hear around me the im- 
mortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me. It 
is marvelous, yet simple. It is a fairy tale, and it is 
history. When I go down to the grave I can say, like 
so many others, 'I have finished my day's work;' but 
I can not say, 'I have finished my life.' My day's work 
will begin again next morning. The tomb is not a blind 
alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight, 
to open with the dawn. My work is only a beginning. 
My monument is hardly above its foundation. I would 
be glad to see it mounting and mounting forever. The 
thirst for the infinite proves infinity." 

To Mr. Ingersoll the future was one of joyless 
gloom. I never envied him nor his deluded followers. 
I pity them. To the Christian, the future is one of 
beauty, of grandeur, and of glory. The grave is a 
^'thoroughfare," leading the saved soul up to the gate- 
way of the Celestial City of eternal light and joy. 

''Certainty." Wondrous word ! What does it mean 
to the Christian? Certain, the Bible is the Word of 
God ; certain, that Jesus, the Divine Christ, has made an 
atonement for all my sins ; certain, I am standing on 
the rock of ages; certain, the approving smiles of the 
God of the universe are upon me; certain, that if our 
earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have 
a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal 
in the heavens ; certain, I have entered upon a most 
beautiful and delightful career that shall never end, but 
will go on brightening forever ; certain, that in com- 
panionship with the infinitely pure and happy, and com- 
mensurate with God's own duration, will be my progress 
upon the path of immortality. These are some of the 



136 COAI^S ^ROM THE A1.TAR. 

things of which the Christian is certain. Blessed cer- 
tainties ! They bring delightful rest to the mind, un- 
speakable joy to the heart, and eternal sunshine to the 
soul. These glorious certainties every man and woman 
and child may have, on the simple condition of uncon- 
ditional surrender to Christ, and impHcit faith in Him. 
Meet the conditions, and doubt and fear and anxiety 
will take wings and fly away, and the peace of God that 
apsseth all understanding will fill your soul. 



Chapter X. 
FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance : against such 
there is no law." — Gai^atians v, 22, 23. 

Our Savior said when upon earth: ''Ye shall know 
them by their fruits. . . . Every good tree bringeth 
forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil 
fruit." 

We judge a system from the effect it produces. Its 
utility is determined by its results. This is a correct 
criterion to go by. And for thus judging we have 
Christ's authority. If the effect is good, the cause which 
produced it must be good; and vice versa. This is the 
best possible way to reach correct conclusions touching 
any system. Take the various systems of infidelity. 
What has been their effect? Has not the effect in- 
variably been evil? Infidelity takes, but never gives 
value received for what it takes. It takes away peace, 
and gives sorrow ; it takes away rest, and gives unrest ; 
it takes away certainty, and gives uncertainty ; it takes 
away hope, and gives despair. Infidelity is not a bene- 
factor ; it is a destroyer. It destroys all that is dear and 
precious to humanity. Desolation and woe and despair 
follow in the wake of infidelity. 

137 



138 CoAI.S i^ROM the: A1.TAR. 

Look at Mormonism and Spiritualism; what has 
been their effect? Evil, and only evil, and that con- 
tinually. They sow the seeds of discord and discontent 
in the hearts of individuals, in families, and communities. 
We are willing that Christianity should be judged by 
this standard. What is the fruit ? What are its effects ? 
Go back to the beginning; trace its history through all 
the ages of the past ; follow it as it has gone among all 
ranks and all the different grades of society — among the 
rich and among the poor, the learned and the unlearned, 
the prosperous and the unfortunate, the sick and the 
well, the living and the dying — wherever it has gone in 
all the ages of the past it has sent cheer and sunshine, 
joy and gladness into the hearts and homes of its pos- 
sessors. The fruits of Christianity are good, always 
good, and good everywhere. Its utility is proved be- 
yond the shadow of a doubt. Its benign effects are seen 
upon the individual, the family, and the world. 

We have grouped together in the text the fruits 
of the Spirit, the evidences of genuine Christianity. 
''The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.'' Let these 
graces dwell in every heart, reign supreme in every soul, 
and sin would Hft its dark cloud from the earth and fly 
away. The text describes a Christian of the highest 
type, one in whose heart the Holy Spirit abides, and 
reigns without a rival. It describes a Christian who has 
gone up to the highest mountain-peak of usefulness and 
enjoyment. Man loses much in this world by not be- 
coming a Christian. ''Godliness is profitable unto all 
things, having promise of the life that now^ is, and of 
that which is to come.'' So the Christian loses much, 
far more than he has any idea of, by not going up to 
the highest plane of rehgious experience. 



CoAIvS FROM the: Ai,TAR. I39 

The firstfruit of the Spirit is love. In this wonder- 
ful cluster of Christian graces, Paul places love at the 
head of the list. God is love, Christ is love, the Holy 
Spirit is love. One has said, 'Xove is the crown of 
crowns worn by the Triune God." 

Love to God is imparted to us by the Holy Ghost. 
Says Paul, ''The love of God is shed abroad in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." We 
can not beheve God, neither can we love God, without 
the aid of the Holy Ghost. And when we are willing 
to have our hearts emptied of all sin, and cry out with 
an earnest, longing desire, ''Come in, come in, thou 
Heavenly Guest," then the Spirit comes in, and "the 
feast is everlasting love." Then we begin to love God, 
and we love Him as never before, because we begin to 
see His love to us as we never saw it before. 

The Christian's love to God rises from a sense of 
God's love to us, as seen in the wonders of creation, 
the wonders of redemption, and all the arrangements of 
Divine providence and grace. As we contemplate the 
rich favors of God; as we trace creation in its beauties, 
harmonies, and glories, all made to subserve our happi- 
ness ; as we contemplate the lasting benefits coming to 
us from redemption — the blessings of pardon, of purity, 
of heaven; as we look up to the Great Father of all, 
knowing that He loves us, protects us, saves us, and 
will ultimately crown us with everlasting glory, — our 
hearts go out towards Him in the tenderest and warmest 
affection. We love Him. Love is the element in which 
the Christian lives and moves. It is the element in 
which the glorified inhabitants of heaven dwell. There 
Is nothing better in religion than love ; there is nothing 
higher in heaven than love. 



140 CoAIvS I^ROM 1:hE A1.TAR. 

Joy is another fruit of the Spirit. Says Dr. Hamil- 
ton: "Joy is the happiness of love. It is love exulting; 
love aware of its own felicity; love taking a look at its 
vast treasures.'^ We must not, however, depend on 
joy. It is not safe to depend on emotion or feeling. 
We should remember always that feeling is not relig- 
ion — emotion is not religion. While this is true, there 
is danger of our going to the other extreme — of being 
perfectly satisfied without any joy. Joy is one of the 
fruits of a genuine Christian, and if we have no joy we 
may well suspect the genuineness of our Christianity. 
Joy is one of the evidences of our salvation, and the man 
who has a knowledge of his salvation has more or less 
joy all the time. This personal knowledge of salvation 
is superior to all other knowledge ; all other knowledge 
pales before it. Paul said it was an ''excellent knowl- 
edge'' — excelling all other knowledge — and in order to 
have it he was ready to part with everything earthly. 
"Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the 
excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord.'' 
When David backslid and lost his religion, he lost his 
joy. One of the first things prayed for when he came 
back to God was for the restoration of his joy. ''Re- 
store unto me the joy of Thy salvation." Nehemiah 
said to the Jews, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." 
A joyful Christian is a strong Christian. A joyful 
Church is a Church of power. 

How shall we get this joy ? If we look sharply at the' 
text we shall see, "The fruit of the Spirit is joy." Get 
the Spirit, and you will have the joy. God is willing, 
and waiting, and anxious to give us the Spirit. He is 
more willing to give the Holy Ghost to them that ask 
Him than earthly parents are to give good gifts unto 
their children. Get the Holy Ghost; then with Paul 



CoAIvS FROM the: Ai^TAR. 141 

you may '^rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory." 

Another fruit of the Spirit is peace. One has said: 
"Joy is love exulting; peace is love reposing. It is 
love on the green pastures and beside the still waters/' 
It is the great calm that comes over the soul when it 
reaHzes the fullness of the atonement. God said to His 
ancient people, ''O that thou hadst hearkened to My 
commandments ! then had thy peace been as a river, 
and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.'' Look 
at the majestic river as it sweeps onward to the ocean, 
with scarcely a ripple upon its surface. Calm and un- 
ruffled, it moves on to the sea. There may be disturb- 
ing elements on either side of that river. Along its 
banks cities may be burned; bloody battles may be 
fought, and raging epidemics sweep away thousands 
of the people ; but the river, undisturbed, calm, and un- 
ruffled, moves onward amid these scenes, the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and forever. 

*'Men may come and men may go, 
But the river goes on forever." 

Beautiful emblem of the peace which takes posses- 
sion of the saved soul! 

There may be disturbing elements all along the 
Christian's pathway. There may be disturbing elements 
in the home, in business matters, in the Church, and in 
the community. But away down in the soul is the 
settled peace, the great calm ; and this peace, this undis- 
turbed calm, flows on amid these disturbing elements, 
the same, year after year. 

"It sweetly cheers our droopinK hearts. 
In this dark vale of tears." 



142 CoAi.s p^ROM The: Ai.tar. 

The' hymn of Isaac Watts also beautifully ex- 
presses it: 

*'The men of grace have found 
Glory begun below; 
Celestial fruit on earthly ground 
From faith and hope may grow. 

Then let our songs abound, 

And every tear be dry; 
We 're marching through Immanuel's ground 

To fairer worlds on high." 

Long-suffering is another fruit of the Spirit ; bearing 
with the weaknesses, the infirmities, the littleness of 
faith in others ; bearing with them if they do not see 
things just as we do.' Paul says, ''Charity suffereth long 
and is kind.'' What a wonderful thing is charity ! It 
''beareth all things." God is long-sufifering, and we are 
to be Hke Him. Long did God bear with the ante- 
diluvians, that they might have an opportunity of re- 
penting; long did He bear with the wicked cities of the 
plain; long did He bear with His ancient Israel, and 
long did He bear with us. ''God is gracious and merci- 
ful, slow to anger and of great kindness." "The Lord 
is long-suffering to usward, not wilHng that any should 
perish, but that all should come to repentance;" and 
we are to be Hke Him. 

Gentleness is another fruit of the Spirit. When the 
Holy Spirit comes into the heart in answer to our ear- 
nest prayer, He gives to the Christian this disposition. 
This disposition is a power the world can not possibly 
resist. Geologists tell us that the calm and silent influ- 
ence of the atmosphere is a power mightier than all the 
noisier forces of nature. Rocks and mountains are worn 
down and subdued by it. So gentleness — gentleness and 



CoAivS ^ROM the; Awar. 143 

sweetness of disposition — is a power mightier than phi- 
losophy, mightier than diplomacy, mightier than arms 
to mold, and subdue, and make happy our world. 

As Napoleon sat upon the rocky island of St. Helena, 
and contemplated the wreck of his own power, and all 
his earthly plans, he said, ''With all my power I have 
only made men fear me ; but Jesus has made men love 
Him for eighteen hundred years." By His gentleness 
and love, Christ won all hearts, and started waves of 
hallowed influence that will roll on in widening circles 
forever. And if we have His spirit — and we may — we, 
too, shall set in motion waves of influence that shall tell 
upon the happiness of men, not only through all time, 
but through all the ages of eternity. 

Goodness is another fruit of the Spirit. Joy is love 
exulting, peace is love reposing, goodness is love in 
action; goodness is love carrying medicine to the sick, 
food to the hungry, and the cup of water to the disciple 
of our Lord. It is love at the hovel of poverty, by the 
bedside of the sick and dying, speaking words of cheer 
and comfort to the sufifering and the sorrowing ones of 
earth. It is love going out after the unsaved; going 
down into the cellars and up into the garrets, out into 
the highways, the lanes and alleys, everywhere seeking 
to save the lost. It is love, binding up the broken 
hearts, wiping away the tears of sorrow, and earnestly 
toiling to augment the company of the redeemed. He 
who has this grace, like his Divine Master, is constantly 
''going about doing good." This grace is described in 
the General Rules of our Church. Goodness ; that is, 
"doing good of every possible sort, and as far as possible 
to all men; to their bodies of the ability which God 
giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the 
naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in 



144 CoAIvS I^ROM THE AlvTAR. 

prison; to their souls, by instructing, reproving, or ex- 
horting all we have any intercourse with, trampling 
under foot that exthusiastic doctrine that we are not to 
do good unless our hearts be free to it/' 

A most thrilling event occurred at one of our rail- 
road stations between here and California a few years 
ago. It is given by the doctor who was an eye-witness 
of the scene. 

Some thirty years ago a gentleman who was travel- 
ing in the South met a young girl of great beauty and 
wealth, and married her. They returned to New York 
and plunged into the mad whirl of gayety. The young 
wife had been a gentle, thoughtful girl, anxious to help 
all suffering and want, and serve her God faithfully. 
But after marriage she had troops of flatterers; her 
dresses and splendid equipage were the finest in the city. 
In a few months she was intoxicated with admiration. 
She and her husband went to London, from London to 
Paris. In these cities they dressed, danced, flirted, hur- 
ried from ball to reception, and from opera to dinner. 
Many silly girls envied this woman of fashion. Some 
ten years ago she was returning home from California, 
when an accident occurred to the railroad train in which 
she was a passenger, and she received a fatal injury. 
She was carried into a wayside station. A physician 
living near was called. Dr. Blank said: "It was the 
most painful experience of my life. I had to tell her 
she had but an hour to live." ''I must go home,'' she 
said, imperatively, "to New York." "It is impossible," 
I answered. She' was lying on the floor. The brake- 
men had rolled up their coats for a pillow. She looked 
around on the dingy room. "I have but one hour, you 
say!" "Not more." "And this is all that is left me 
of this world. It is not much, Doctor," with a half smile. 



Coals from the Ai.tar. 145 

The men left the room, and I locked the door. She 
threw her arms over her face and lay quiet for some 
time; then turned on me in a frenzy: ''To think of 
all I might have done, with my time and money ! God 
wanted me to help the poor and the sick ! It 's too late 
now ! I Ve only an hour !'' She struggled up wildly. 
''Why, Doctor, I did nothing, nothing, but lead the 
fashion. Great God ! The fashion ! Now I Ve only 
an hour !" But she had not that, for the exertion 
proved fatal. No sermon I ever heard was Hke that 
woman's desparing cry, "It 's too late V 

In the hght of present happiness, in the light of your 
duty to God and humanity, in the light of the great 
judgment-day so soon to confront us all, I want to say 
to you, you can't afford to lead the fashions. You can't 
afford to follow the gay and giddy throng of the world 
in its vanities and frivolties. Life is too short to live 
for this world alone. It is too short to spend it in any 
other way save in getting ready for another world, and 
in helping others to get ready. And if this life is spent 
in preparing for a higher and nobler destiny, and in 
helping others to prepare for that higher and nobler 
destiny, then this life will close in beauty and glory. 
Our earthly sun, instead of sinking behind a dark and 
gloomy cloud, will go down in blazing splendor. 

Another fruit of the Spirit is fidelity. Faith here 
means fidelity — faithfulness in transacting the business 
committed to us by God, unswerving loyalty to our 
Heavenly Father. Joy is love' exulting; peace is love 
reposing; goodness is love in action; fidelity is love on 
the field of battle in the face of the foe. Get the Holy 
Ghost, and you will have the fidelity of Abraham, of 
Daniel, of Paul, of Polycarp, of Ridley, Laliincr, and 
Huss. Then, like these ancient worthies, you will be 
10 



146 COAI.S :^ROM THE Altar. 

enabled to die on the field of battle with glory in full 
view. 

Temperance is another fruit of the Spirit. I have 
not time to discuss this topic. Here a wide field opens 
before me, over which I might travel and talk for an 
hour. As Christians we are pitted against intemperance 
in a warfare that shall never terminate until this great 
evil shall go down and prohibition shall everywhere 
prevail. For this we expect to unceasingly pray, talk, 
work, and vote. 

This rich cluster of graces is not one of human 
growth. They do not grow in the natural heart. They 
are of Divine planting and Divine growth. They are the 
fruitage of the Holy Ghost. If you want this wonderful 
cluster of graces, get the Holy Ghost. I am glad to 
say, on Divine authority, the Holy Ghost is here hover- 
ing over us, waiting, ready and anxious to come into 
every beHeving heart in all the plenitude of His love 
and power. 



Chapter XL 
THE IDEAL CHRISTIAN. 

"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; 
and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remem- 
brance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, 
and that thought upon His name/' — Malachi hi, i6. 

In every age, from Adam to the present, there have 
been a few faithful followers of the Almighty. There 
have been men and women who have turned neither to 
the right nor to the left, that have not been swayed by 
any of the evil influences round and about them. As 
the needle is true to the pole, so they have been true to 
their God. 

Away back in the Patriarchal Age, when the wicked- 
ness of man was great, and the thoughts and imagina- 
tions were evil, and only evil, and that continually, we 
find a few faithful souls. Noah and Enoch stood as 
beacon-lights amid the surrounding gloom. 

During the Prophetic Period, when moral desolation 
everywhere prevailed, and the masses of the people had 
forgotten God, there were always a few whose faith in 
the Almighty was as firm as the anvil to its beaten 
stroke. 

In the days of Malachi, the last of the prophets, 
wickedness reigned almost supreme. Vice in all forms 
was rampant. The people had wandered far from God, 

147 



148 Coals from the Altar. 

and no longer worshiped Him. The walls of Jerusalem 
had been torn down, the gates dismantled and burned 
with fire. The Temple service was neglected. The sup- 
port of the priests had been cut off, and they were com- 
pelled to till the soil for a subsistence, or engage in 
other secular pursuits. Moral and financial desolation 
everywhere prevailed. The whole scene was a sad and 
melancholy one. Amid the awful financial and moral 
gloom that overspread the whole land, there were a few 
whose faith in God never wavered, and whose voices 
were always heard in defense of the religion of the God 
of their fathers. They feared God. They thought upon 
His name. They talked of His goodness. 

''Then they that feared God spake often one to an- 
other, and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a 
book of remembrance was written before Him for them 
that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name.'' 

The text is a graphic description of the ideal Chris- 
tian. The ideal Christian is not L^topian, existing simply 
in imagination or fancy. The ideal Christian may be 
reached by every child of God. 

I. The ideal Christian fears God. 

That little band in Malachi's day feared the Lord. 
The ideal Christian to-day fears God, not as the slave 
fears his master ; not as the criminal fears the officer ; 
but as the loving, obedient child fears the parent. It 
is the fear of filial reverence. 

A little boy was tempted to take some cherries from 
a tr^e his father had forbidden him to touch. He hesi- 
tated. His companion that was wath him said, ''You 
need not be afraid to take them, for if your father were 
to find it out he would not hurt you." "Ah !" said the 
little fellow, "I know my father would not hurt me if I 



COAI.S FROM the: AWAR. I49 

took them ; but if I took them it would hurt my father ; 
therefore, I will not touch them/' That is the feeling of 
every true Christian toward his Heavenly Father. 

Solomon says the first step to true wisdom is the 
fear of the Lord. ^'The fear of the Lord is the begin- 
ning of wisdom." This great and wise man declares 
that the wisest men that walk the earth are those that 
fear God, and the most foolish men that walk the earth 
are those who do not fear Him. ''The fear of the Lord 
is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wis- 
dom." (Prov. i, 7.) By wisdom Solomon means relig- 
ion. The fear of the Lord is that religous reverence 
which every intelligent being owes to his Creator. 

ReHgion is the love of God shed abroad in the heart 
by the Holy Ghost. This love produces a willing obedi- 
ence to all God's commandments. Then it is love to 
man as well as to God; so that he who fears God, not 
only renders a cheerful obedience to all God's com- 
mands, but with regard to his fellow-man keeps the 
Golden Rule. If all, therefore, feared the Lord, what 
a world we would have ! Nations would learn war no 
more. Swords would be beaten into plowshares, and 
spears into pruning-hooks. Jails and penitentiaries 
would be empty. Sheriffs and policemen would have 
nothing to do. The whole trend of society would be 
changed, and happiness would reign supreme in every 
human heart. 

n. The ideal Christian thinks of God. 

That little handful of devout worshipers of God in 
Malachi's day ''thought upon His name." The masses 
of the people all around them had forgotten God. 
Prayer, praise, song, and testimony were no longer 
heard by the multitudes. The Temple was not crowded 



150 Coals i^rom th^ Ai.tar. 

with devout worshipers as in former days. That mag- 
nificent and imposing building, dedicated to the worship 
of God, had become dilapidated, was sadly out of re- 
pair, and in a most miserably-neglected condition. The 
minds of the majority were not upon God, but upon the 
world. The circus, the theater, the drama, the gladi- 
atorial arenas were crowded with the multitudes that 
thronged these places of amusement, while the temple 
of the living God was empty. 

It is a remarkable fact that the very same amuse- 
ments that charmed and attracted the people of the 
world three thousand years ago, attract and charm the 
people of the world to-day, — the circus, the theater, 
the drama. Gibbon, the historian, who wrote ''The De- 
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire,'' in giving the 
causes of the overthrow of that mighty empire, men- 
tions, among others, the theater and the drama. These 
entertainments had become awfully corrupt and terribly 
demoralizing in their influence. And do not the signs 
of the times indicate that our own beloved Nation is 
drifting away from her moral moorings ? When we look 
upon the awful results of the rum-traffic, the dead march 
to drunkards' graves of one hundred thousand every 
year, the fearful passion for gambling, the ball-room, 
the theater, and the drama, we shudder. Unless we call 
a halt on these hues, we tremble for the safety of the 
American Nation. 

While the masses of the people in Malachi's day had 
forgotten God, and He was not in their thoughts at all, 
there were a few who feared Him and thought upon His 
name. They thought of His love, His mercy, and His 
goodness ; and as they thought of these things there 
welled up from the very bottom of their hearts, song, 
praise, and testimony. 



COAI^S FROM THE AWAR. I5I 

The ideal Christian to-day thinks of God. God is 
in all His thoughts. God is more to him than all this 
world besides. The things that attract and charm the 
worldly-minded have no charms for him at all. His 
mind is upon nobler and more enduring things. 

in. The ideal Christian has a religious experience, 
and is always ready to tell it. 

That noble band in Malachi's day had a deep, sweet, 
rich, glowing, and abiding experience. ''They spake 
often one to another." I think more of my religious 
experience than any other thing. I would not part 
with it for all the wealth, and all the pleasures, and all 
the honors of this world. There is nothing I prize so 
highly as I do my religious experience. The ideal Chris- 
tian in all ages has had a deep, sweet, rich, glowing, and 
abiding experience, and has always been ready to tell 
it. David had such an experience. ''Come and hear, 
all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath 
done for my soul.'' (Psa. Ixvi, 16.) Paul had such an 
experience, and he would tell it. 

Our Savior declared that every Spirit-baptized Chris- 
tian should be a witness for Him. "Ye shall receive 
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; 
and shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem and 
in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
part of the earth." (Acts i, 8.) St. John the Divine had 
a rich religious experience, and he would tell it. Nero, 
the Roman emperor, got tired of hearing it, and he 
banished John to the lonely isle of Patmos. John says, 
"I was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word 
of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Rev. i, 9.) 
He was there because he was a faithful witness for the 
Lord Jesus. But John went on telling his experience 



152 CoAIvS FROM the: Ai^TAR. 

just the same. What a wonderful manifestation of the 
the Lord Jesus John had when on that lonely, rocky, 
sea-girt isle ! He tells what he saw, and heard, and felt, 
and that wonderful experience has been recorded and 
handed down for our encouragement and for our in- 
spiration. 

Paul, as well as John, suffered because he was a 
faithful witness for the Lord. He was a faithful witness 
before kings, and in the leading cities of the world. 
He went to the great centers of Europe and Asia, and 
told what the Lord had done for his soul. On his re- 
turn to Jerusalem from one of his evangelistic tours, he 
went into the Temple ; a mob seized him, drew him out 
of the Temple, began to beat him, and was about to 
kill him. In a few moments the" whole city was in an 
uproar. The chief of police was notified, and with a 
band of soldiers rushed to the scene. He took Paul 
from the mob, and ordered him taken to the castle. 
The mob followed, crying, ''Away with him ! away with 
him !'' When they reached the steps leading into the 
castle, the bloodthirsty rabble all about them, he asked 
the privilege of speaking. It was granted. Standing 
on the steps leading into the castle, he beckoned with 
his hand to the frenzied mob to be quiet. When he 
secured their attention, then he spoke ; then he made 
his defense. What kind of a defense did he make? 
What did he say to that howling mob ? He simply told 
his experience. He said unto them: ''Men, brethren, 
and fathers, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, brought up at 
the feet of GamaHel, and taught according to the per- 
fect law of the fathers. And I persecuted this way unto 
the death. While on my way to Damascus, with power 
from the high priests to seize, bind, and cast into prison 
Christian men, women, and children, there shone around 



CoAIvS FROM THE Al^TAR. 1 53 

me a great light, brighter than the noonday sun, and I 
fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, 
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? And I answered, 
Who art Thou, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus of 
Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were 
with me saw indeed the light, but they heard not the 
voice that spake to me. And I said. What shall I do, 
Lord? And the Lord said unto me. Arise, go into 
Damascus, and it shall be told thee all things which are 
appointed for thee to do. And when I could not see for 
the glory of that light being led by the hand of them 
that were with me, I came unto Damascus. And one 
Ananias, a devout man, came unto me, and stood, and 
said unto me. Brother Saul, receive thy sight, and there 
fell from mine eyes as it had been scales, and forthwith 
I received my sight. And Ananias said unto me. Thou 
shalt be His WiTNiiss unto all men of what thou hast 
seen and heard." 

Then, when he was taken before Agrippa to answer 
to the charges brought against him by the Jews, he was 
permitted to make his own defense. What kind of a 
defense did he make as he stood in the presence of the 
king and that august assembly? He simply told his 
experience, just as he did to that howling mob as he 
stood on the steps leading into the castle. And as he 
related that wonderful experience, Festus became so 
nervous and excited that he could keep quiet no longer, 
and leaping to his feet shouted aloud, *Taul, thou art 
beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad/' 
Paul's answer to Festus proved to that majestic court, 
and the whole world as well, that he was the most sane 
man that ever lived, *'I am not mad, most noble Festus, 
but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.'' And 
as Paul told the simple story of his conversion, convic- 



154 COAI.S FROM THE A1.TAR. 

tion went to the heart of the king upon his throne, and 
Agrippa said, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a 
Christian." Paul repHed, ''I would to God that not only 
thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both al- 
most, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds/' 
(Acts xxvi, 29.) 

Then again, when taken to Rome, to appear before 
Caesar, there at the capital of the Roman Empire, then 
mistress of the world, he told his religious experience, 
and testified of Christ's power to save. And there, as 
on all other occasions, some believed, while others be- 
came enraged. Paul's great argument in favor of the 
truth of the Christian reUgion was his own personal 
experience. 

In the early history of Nebraska there lived, just 
west of Omaha, a man by the name of Harrison John- 
son. He was a great politician, very intelligent, well 
read, and abreast with the great questions of the age, 
but an avowed infidel. He had read all the infidel books 
extant, and all that j\Ir. Ingersoll had written up to 
that time, and he had their arguments against the Chris- 
tian religion on the end of his tongue, and he loved to 
advocate his infidelity. His wife and mother were both 
Christians and members of the ^lethodist Episcopal 
Church. Some twenty-five years ago, or more, ]\Irs. 
Van Cott held revival-meetings in the Methodist church 
in Omaha. During these meetings this man Johnson 
was clearly and powerfully converted, and then he be- 
came just as strong an advocate of the Christian re- 
ligion as he had previously been of infidelity. When I 
was presiding elder of the Omaha District I became inti- 
mately acquainted with him. He often went with me to 
my quarterly-meetings, in order that he might have an 
opportunity of talking privately to persons on the sub- 



CoAIvS FROM THE AWAR. 1 55 

ject of religion. He loved to get hold of and talk with 
hardened infidels. This was his delight. And when he 
got hold of one of these he almost invariably succeeded 
in leading him to Christ. The only argument he ever 
used in favor of the truth of the Christian reHgion, was 
his own experience. The following I had from his 
own lips : 

He had a neighbor who lived on an adjoining farm. 
They were fast friends. They loved each other as did 
David and Jonathan. They came to the Territory in 
an early day, and settled just west of Omaha. His 
neighbor, as he himself had been, was an infidel. When 
Johnson was converted, his friend and neighbor was 
very much surprised. Some time afterward they met, 
and his neighbor said to him : ^'Harrison, I want you 
and your wife to come over next Wednesday and take 
dinner with us, and after dinner I want to spend the 
afternoon arguing with you on the subject of Christian- 
ity. You may talk a half an hour and I will talk half 
an hour, and we will spend the afternoon in this way." 
"All right,'' said Brother Johnson, ''we shall be de- 
lighted to accept your kind invitation." 

The next Wednesday they went over, and, after a 
pleasant social chat and a splendid dinner, Brother John- 
son said: ''Well, Charley, I think we had better begin 
our argument. You may have the first half hour, and 
I will take the second." And during that first half hour 
Charley brought forward the strongest arguments 
Brother Johnson said he had ever heard or read against 
the' Christian religion. It was a magnificent talk. 
"Now," said he, "Harrison, it is your turn." "Charley/' 
said Brother Johnson, "when Mrs. Van Cott came to 
Omaha a few weeks ago I was converted. When I 
heard there was a woman preaching in the Methodist 



156 COAI.S FROM THE A1.TAR. 

church I was anxious to meet her. I had a great curi- 
osity to see a woman in the pulpit, and to hear what she 
had to say, and so, out of mere curiosity, I went to hear 
her. When I reached the church every seat was taken, 
the church was packed to its utmost capacity, and I was 
compelled to stand up by the door during the entire 
service. Two or three times during the sermon Mrs. 
Van Cott caught my eye. After she had preached, and 
invited persons who desired religion to come to the 
altar, she left the pulpit, and made straight for me. I 
saw her pressing her way down through the crowded 
aisle, and she never stopped until she came to where 
I was standing. Taking me by the hand, she said : 

" 'Are you a Christian ?' 

'' 'No.' 

"'Would you Hke to be a Christian?' 

" 'If I thought there was such a thing as religion, 
I do n't know but I would.' 

" 'Won't you go to the altar ?' 

" 'No.' 

" 'May I pray for you ?' 

" 'If you desire to do so, I shall not object.' 

"She knelt right down by my side, still holding my 
hand. Men were standing all around us ; and such a 
prayer as she made, Charley, I never heard in all my 
life before. It was the most powerful prayer I ever lis- 
tened to ; and while she prayed, a very peculiar feeling 
came all over me, such as I had never before experi- 
enced. When she finished her prayer she arose and 
said: 

" 'Won't vou go to the altar and seek religion?' 

" 'Not to-night.' 

" 'Will you go to-morrow night ?' 

" 'Yes/ 



CoAivS i^ROM the: Altar. 157 

** ^All right. I shall expect you to-morrow night/ 
and back she went to the pulpit. 

"Five minutes after I had made the promise I was 
sorry. I thought about it all the next day, and time and 
again said to myself, 'What a fool you are for making 
such a promise as that to Mrs. Van Cott !' But, you 
know, Charley, I never go back on my word. I always 
do as I promise. I went back the next night. The 
house was crowded. Every available seat was occupied, 
and again I was compelled to stand up by the door. 
Mrs. Van Cott preached a sermon of marvelous power. 
Every sentence went like a shaft to my heart. When 
she had finished she called for persons who wanted 
religion to come to the altar; and, Charley, if the Mis- 
souri River had been running between me and that altar, 
I should have plunged in and gone through. I got to 
the altar just as quick as I could. I knelt down, and 
for a little while I never felt so bad in my life. The 
darkest cloud I ever witnessed settled down upon my 
soul. It was more dense than Egyptian night. It 
seemed to me that I was sinking into the bottomless pit. 
And, Charley, I just offered this simple prayer, 'O God, 
have mercy upon me, a sinner, for Jesus' sake. Amen.' 
The dark cloud lifted, passed away, and there came into 
my soul a wonderfully sweet peace. It seemed to go 
all through my body and soul. I said to myself: 'This 
is strange. I never had such a feeling as this before. 
What does it mean? I wonder if this is religion. Yes. 
This is religion, and I have got it. I have got re- 
ligion!' I said nothing to any one. I wanted the 
meeting to close ; and just as quick as the benediction 
was pronounced I rushed out of the house, got on my 
horse, and hurried home. I went into the room where 
my wife was sitting, and I said to her, 'Wife, I have got 



158 Coals from the: Altar. 

religion/ She arose, embraced me, and gave me the 
sweetest kiss she ever gave me in her Hfe. Then I went 
in to where my mother was, and I said to her, 'Mother, 
I have got reHgion/ 'O, my son!' said she, and, throw- 
ing her arms around my neck, she gave me the sweetest 
kiss she had ever given me. And now, Charley, I have 
no doubts, no fears, no anxiety. My soul is at perfect 
rest. I expect to live forever with my mother, my wife, 
and my children. But, Charley, my time is up. Now 
it is your turn." 

A tear was in Charley's eye, and he said : ''Harrison, 
you have beat me. I would not be such a fool as to try 
and answer your argument. I have known you from 
a boy, and I know you to be a man of integrity. I know 
you would not say anything that is not strictly true. 
And, Harrison, the fact is, I would like to have just what 
you have." 

In a few weeks Charley was just as clearly converted 
as Harrison himself had been, and then he became as 
warm an advocate of the Christian religion as Brother 
Johnson himself. No argument that Harrison Johnson 
could have possibly brought to bear in favor of the 
truth of the Christian reUgion would have been half so 
powerful as the simple story of his own personal ex- 
perience. What we want to-day is not more defenders 
of the Christian religion, not more advocates of our 
holy Christianity, but more witnesses to Christ's power 
to save from all sin. It is not the advocate that carries 
conviction to the jury, but the witnesses. 

An oculist, just from college, went into the city of 
London and opened an office. He was an entire 
stranger, without friends, and had no money. He had 
paid out his last dollar for his education. He had no 
means of advertising his profession. Days passed, 



COAI.S ^ROM the: A1.TAR. 159 

weeks passed, and not a single patient came to his office. 
He was discouraged, downcast, and gloomy. Walking 
down one of the streets of the great city one day, he 
saw a poor man sitting on the curbstone. He stopped, 
looked into his eyes, and discovered that the man was 
stone-blind. He said to him: 

*'Why don't you have your eyesight restored?" 

"I have been doctoring with various physicians for 
years, and none have ever done me any good. I have 
spent a fortune on my eyes. I am hopelessly bUnd. I 
never expect to see," was the reply. 

''Come to my office to-morrow morning at ten 
o'clock." 

The next morning a friend led the blind man into 
the office of the young ocuHst. Taking his seat in the 
chair, the oculist performed an operation. It was suc- 
cessful. The poor blind man was enabled to see clearly. 
Overwhelmed with joy and gratitude he said: 

"Doctor, I have n't got a dollar in the world. I can't 
pay you. I am afraid I never shall be able to pay you." 

"Yes," said the doctor, "you can pay me, and I shall 
expect you to do so. I do n't want your money. There 
is just one thing I want you to do, and it 's a very easy 
thing done." 

"Tell me what it is," said the happy man, "and I 
shall be delighted to do it." 

The doctor replied : "Tell it. Tell everybody you see 
that you were blind, and who healed you." 

The restored man left the office to tell everybody he 
saw of his wonderful cure. Wherever he heard of a 
blind man he went to him and said: ''I was once blind 
just as you are. I went to Dr. Blank, and he healed 
me, and if you will go to him he will heal you just as he 
did me." In a little while the oculist had more patients 



l6o CoAIvS ^ROM TH^ Al^TAR. 

than he could possibly accommodate. His office was 
constantly crowded with customers. 

Have you been converted ? Tell it, and give to God 
the glory. Have you been sanctified wholly ? Do n't 
argue on this question; that will do no good; but, in 
meekness and humility, simply tell your experience, giv- 
ing to God all the praise, the honor, and the glory; 
then back that testimony with a pure and spotless life. 



Chapter XII. 
PAUL'S GREAT PRAYER. 

''For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and 
earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the 
riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His 
Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts 
by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be 
able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and 
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, 
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the 
fullness of God." — Bph. hi, 14-19. 

A LITTI.E boy v^as v^alking dov^n one of the streets 
of Baltimore, and came to the foot of a long ladder. 
He looked up, but could see no one ; he heard the 
voices and hammers of the workmen on the roof above. 
His childish curiosity was awakened, and he was im- 
pelled to climb. Placing his little foot on the lowest 
round of the ladder, and taking hold of the second with 
his little hand, he pulled himself up, hand over hand 
and round above round, until he reached a height that 
to fall would have been instant death. He became tired, 
and stopped to rest. He looked down/ and was fright- 
ened at the great distance. He began to grow dizzy, 
and was afraid he would fall. Just then a man passing 
along the street and looking up, exclaimed, "My God! 
that boy is going to fall.'* He meant all right, but he 
could not have done a worse thing. This frightened the 
II 161 



1 62 Coals from thi: Altar. 

boy still worse, and it seemed that the ladder swayed 
to and fro like the trees in the midst of a tempest. The 
streets and buildings all seemed to be rocking. He felt 
himself growing weaker and weaker, and he thought he 
surely would fall. Just then he heard another voice 
coming down from above. It was loud, cheery, and full 
of courage, saying, "Boy, look up.'' He did look up; 
any one would have looked up on hearing such a voice 
as that. "All right now," shouted the man above. 
"Come on.'' The boy was dizzy no longer. His fear 
was all gone, he began to climb, and soon the strong 
arms of the workman lifted him to a place of perfect 
safety. 

I have thought there were thousands that are climb- 
ing the Christian ladder Hke that boy, midway between 
the earth and the housetop. They are weary. They 
do not feel as they did when they placed their feet on 
the first round of the Christian ladder. The enthusiasm 
they had then has departed. The joy that once thrilled 
their souls with rapture is gone. They are looking 
down and out upon the world around them. They are 
in danger — great, imminent, fearful danger. To all such 
there is a voice coming down from above, saying, "Look 
up. Come up higher.'' Above there is perfect safety, 
perfect rest, perfect sunshine ; but below there is storm, 
and tempest, and danger. 

In the text, Paul bids every follower of Christ go up 
to an altitude where he may be above the clouds and 
the storms, and where he may bathe his happy soul in 
the constant sunlight of heaven. In this wonderful 
prayer we have given us an idea of what God is willing 
to do for every one of His children here on earth. 

When Paul penned these words he was inspired. 
What God inspired Paul to pray for, that He proposes 



CoAIvS ^ROM THH A1.TAR. 163 

to give. Every prayer in God's Word is tantamount to 
a positive promise. There is not a single request in this 
marvelous prayer but what God is ready and willing and 
anxious to grant to every one of His trusting children. 
It seems that no one can read this profound prayer and 
plead a single moment for the continuance of indwell- 
ing sin. 

It is really wonderful to what extent God promises 
to save His children here, to what heights He promises 
to raise them, and what scenes of rapture He promises 
to open up to their gaze. This prayer outstrips every- 
thing we ever heard, or read, or thought. It is wonder- 
ful beyond all description. The mind bends under 
weight of the stupendous thought it contains. 

I. The first thing Paul prayed for was Divine 
strength for these Ephesian converts : ^'To be strength- 
ened." 

We learn from the second chapter of this epistle that 
many of these Ephesian converts were from the lowest 
strata of society. They had been among the vilest of 
the vile. They had gone down to the lowest round on 
the' ladder of sin, and had become accustomed to all 
forms of vice. They had been rocked in the cradle of 
sin, and had grown up amid its impurities. 

Paul knew very well that these converts, who, by 
long-continued years in sin, had become habituated to 
vice, could not resist the temptations of the enemy, nor 
escape the wiles of their sagacious foe, nor evade the 
gilded halls of sinful pleasure, without Divine strength ; 
hence he prayed that they might '*be strengthened with 
might by His Spirit." 

This prayer, offered for these Ephesians, was in- 
tended also for God's people throughout all the ages. 



164 CoAIvS I^ROM the: AIvTAR. 

And we all need this strength to-day as much as the 
Ephesians of old needed it, and without it we become 
mere toys in the hands of our enemies. This strength 
that Paul prayed for was not physical nor intellectual, 
but spiritual. It was for the ''inner man." 

The outward man, the body, is strengthened by food 
and exercise ; the intellect by study and close appHca- 
tion ; but the inward man, the soul, by the direct agency 
of the Holy Ghost. We may be as strong physically as 
Samson, and as massive and gigantic intellectually as 
Voltaire, but if we have not Divine strength imparted 
to the heart by the direct agency of the Holy Ghost, 
when the enemy comes, and come he will; when the 
world with its gilded and fascinating charms assail, and 
assail it will ; when unbelief with its sophisms makes its 
attack, and attack it will, — then we shall be found as 
weak as Samson in the lap of Delilah, and as helpless 
as Voltaire in the clutches of vice. 

Bablyon and Nineveh and Tyre and the proud cities 
of Egypt, with all their intellectuality and physical re- 
sources, were overthrown, went down, and only live on 
the pages of history, because devoid of moral strength. 
Carthage, long the rival of Rome, with all her material 
and intellectual strength, grew weak, efifeminate, and 
went to ruin, because of the want of moral power. 
Rome, with her scepter of universal empire, with the 
intelHgence, the material resources, the miHtary prowess 
of the world, all combined, fell to pieces, went to wreck 
and ruin, because devoid of that strength that .Paul 
prayed the Church of Ephesus might have. 

If you will read carefully the history of the past, you 
will find that no kingdom, no nation, no empire, in all 
past history, no matter what has been her material re- 
sources, intellectuality, military prowess, or the number 



COAI.S ^ROM THE AlvTAR. 165 

of her subjects — not one, devoid of moral strength, 
but has sooner or later gone to wreck and ruin. 

As it has been with nations, so has it been with 
individuals. Alexander the Great conquered the world ; 
but his own heart conquered him. At the age of thirty- 
two he died in the mudst of a drunken revel. And as 
it was with him, so has it been with thousands since 
his day. 

And as it has been with nations, cities, and individ- 
uals, so has it been with the Church. Whenever the 
Church has drifted away from God, lost her spirituality, 
trusted in numbers, forms, and ceremonies, she has lost 
her influence for good in the world. We ought to read 
history aright. We ought to look these facts squarely 
in the face, and we ought to profit by so doing. 

I fear there is one mistake we are making, and it is 
a very grave mistake — a mistake fraught with the most 
disastrous results. It is a tendency to look too much 
to the outward, and not enough to the inward man ; 
a tendency to depend on culture, large numbers, fine 
church edifices, forms and ceremonies, and gorgeous 
paraphernalia, instead of deep spirituality. Culture is 
all right ; forms and ceremonies are all right ; we do not 
undervalue these; but without that internal strength 
which God alone can impart to the' heart, all these are 
but as the sounding brass and the tinkling cymbal. 
Over and above and beyond all other things, we need 
*'to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the 
inner man.'' 

It is not numbers we need so much as spiritual 
power. If not strong in God and the power of His 
might, numbers may prove a hindrance rather than an 
advantage. They may only be stumbling-blocks in the 
way of sinners, and clogs in the wheels of Zion. Gid- 



l66 COAI.S FROM THi: A1.TAR. 

eon's three hundred water-lappers, when he came to a 
hand-to-hand fight with the Midianites, were worth 
more than his thirty-two thousand men. 

There are influences that are being brought to bear 
against us as individuals and as the Church of Christ, 
that we can't possibly resist without Divine strength. 
We can't cope with the combined powers of earth and 
hell, unless strengthened with might by God's Spirit in 
the inner man. We can't breast the mighty waves of 
infideHty that come rolling in upon us from every quar- 
ter, without this strength. We can't repel the cold 
waves of formality that are rolling over and deluging 
the' Churches, unless we have imparted to us this moral 
power. But if we* have this strength, as it is our priv- 
ilege to have, we shall be able to repel every evil influ- 
ence; we shall be able to overcome every opposing 
power; we shall be able to hurl back these cold waves 
of infidelity, formality, and opposing powers, and send 
dismay and terror into the ranks of the enemy greater 
even than that which seized the Midianite hosts when 
attacked by Gideon's three hundred water-lappers. 

11. This Divine strength promised by God is to be 
according to the ability of the giver: "According to 
the riches of His glory." 

In giving alms, it is a maxim that every one should 
give according to his ability. It would be a disgrace 
for a king to give no more than a poor peasant. God 
gives according to the riches of His glory, according 
to His own eternal fullness. We start back and stagger 
at the thought. God proposes to give according to 
His own eternal greatness. Omnipotent power is 
pledged to every child of God. 



CoAi.s FROM the; Altar. 167 

David said, when his enemies were fleeing from him, 
*'God is my strength and power/' Again we hear his 
victorious shout : ''The Lord is the strength of my hfe ; 
of whom shall I be afraid?'' (Psalm xxvii, i.) Backed 
by Omnipotent Power, he had nothing to fear. God 
had been with him in the past, and he knew that he 
would not forsake him in the future. When but a beard- 
less shepherd-boy, God gave him a victory over the 
proud champion of the Philistine army he never forgot, 
and ever afterwards he ascribed his success to God. 

Looking over his past triumphs, he cries out, ''God 
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in 
trouble." His strength was in God. His refuge was 
in God. All he had came from God. He owed his 
throne, the subjugation of his enemies, his military 
prowess, his marvelous success, all to God, and for all 
God received the honor and glory. And then as he 
drew near the close of life he exclaims, ''My flesh and 
my hear faileth; but God is the strength of my heart 
and my portion forever." This same omnipotent 
strength imparted to David, God promises to give to 
every one of His trusting children. 

Isaiah says, "Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the 
Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength." Don't 
trust in man for success, for safety, for prosperity, nor 
in anything earthly ; for all things earthly are uncertain, 
and are not to be relied upon. But trust in the Lord 
God Almighty, who is the same yesterday, and to-day, 
and forever, and you will never be disappointed. Paul 
felt that the outward man was perishing, but the inward 
man was being renewed day by day. The body was 
dying, but the inward man was renewing its youth, be- 
coming more and more vigorous, more and more active, 



1 68 C0AI.S F^ROM THE A1.TAR. 

rising higher and higher, grasping more and more ; the 
range of vision was becoming wider and wider, the 
sweep of thought more and more extensive, the inward 
joy more and more rapturous, until from his martyr 
death his exultant spirit, Hke the bird freed from its 
cage, shot up to the throne, to be forever w^ith the Lord. 
And now, with all these broad and sweeping prom- 
ises before us, how dare any one complain of weakness ? 
We often hear persons say, ''I am trying to serve God 
in my weak way/' God do n't want you to serve Him 
in your weak w^ay. He do n't thank you for serving 
Him in your weak way. God says to all, ''Take hold of 
My strength,'' and that is omnipotent. Come, then, and 
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner 
man. 

HI. Having prayed for strength for these Ephesian 
converts, and strength according to the riches of God's 
glory, Paul advances another step, and prays *'that 
Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith." 

The heart of the Christian, like Solomon's Temple, 
is built up to be a habitation of God through the Spirit. 
It is our privilege to have Christ, by His Spirit, to dwell 
in our hearts continually. We may have Him come, 
not only to make an occasional visit, but to abide with 
us, by day and by night, at home and abroad, every- 
where and all the time. He has promised to abide with 
His children forever: ''I will never leave thee nor for- 
sake thee ;" ''When thou passest through the waters, I 
will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not 
overflow thee : when thou walkest through the fire, thou 
shalt not be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon 
thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of 
Israel, thy Savior." (Isa. xHii, 2, 3.) 



I 



C0AI.S I^ROM THE A1.TAR. 169 

Mrs. Anna Whittenmyer was army nurse during the 
Great Rebellion. After one of the bloody battles she 
went into the hospital tent. As she passed down the 
long aisle, on either side of which was a row of cots, 
on which lay the wounded and dying soldiers, she came 
to a young man whose shining face attracted her atten- 
tion. She sat down and began to talk with him. He 
was cheerful and very hopeful. He said, ''The surgeon 
says when I get well, I shall have a furlough that I may 
go home and visit my mother and sisters up in Iowa." 
Mrs. Whittenmyer was impressed that he never would 
get well. She went to the surgeon and said: 

''Can that young man recover?'' 

"No," said the surgeon ; ''there is no hope for him 
at all. He is liable to die at any moment." 

She went back, sat down by his cot, and began to 
talk with him. "It will be very nice," said she, "if you 
get well to go home and visit your mother and sisters." 

"O yes," said he, "I am anticipating a delightful 
visit." 

"But," said Sister Whittenmyer, "suppose it is not 
God's will that you should get well, but that you should 
die here in this hospital, what then?" 

"He gave me a look," said Sister Whittenmyer, "I 
shall never forget. It thrilled me through and through. 
I shall carry that look with me to the grave. His smil- 
ing face beamed with unearthly brightness, and laying 
his hand upon his heart he said: 'Madam, I have the 
Comforter. If it is God's will that I should not get 
well, it is just as near heaven from this hospital as it is 
from my beautiful home away up in Iowa.' The next 
morning I went to the surgeon and said, *How is that 
young man?' 'He is dead,' was the reply. *He died 
just a little while after you left last night.' 'Well, where 



170 CoAI.S FROM THE iVWAR. 

is he? I want to look into his face again/ The surgeon 
took me out and showed me a long row of cots on which 
lay those who had died during the night, and pointing 
to the last cot in the row, said, 'There he is/ I went up 
to the cot, drew down the sheet that covered his face, 
and there w^as the same sweet, heavenly smile that was 
there when I left him the night before/' 

O, my friend, have you the Comforter? If you 
have, all is well, and it will be just as near to heaven for 
you from one place as from another. 

IV. Having prayed for Divine strength, and strength 
according to the ability of the giver, and an indwelling 
Christ, Paul takes another step, and it is a little higher 
still. He prays that they may be "rooted and grounded 
in love/' Here is a double metaphor, one taken from 
agriculture, and the other from architecture. As trees, 
we are to be rooted in God's eternal love. Love is the 
soil in which our souls are to grow. 

In 1850, when a mere boy, I went overland to Cali- 
fornia. In crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains, I 
saw some of those mammoth redwood-trees, lifting their 
branches three hundred feet into the air. These gigantic 
trees strike their roots deep into the mountain side, and 
their long roots being interlaced, and interlocked among 
the rocks of those everlasting hills, they have bid defi- 
ance to the storms of centuries. For ages, storms and 
hurricanes have raked the mountain sides, but there 
those massive trees have stood, unmoved and unharmed. 
So our souls, by faith, are to strike their roots deep into 
the infinite love of God, and, being firmly rooted in the 
everlasting love of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost, we are perfectly secure. This is per- 
fect love, and it is the most reasonable thing in the 



COAI.S i^ROM the; A1.TAR. 171 

world. God wants us to love Him with all our hearts, 
and all our minds, and all our strength, and when we 
get there, we are stable and perfectly safe. Paul knew 
that these Ephesian converts would have trials ; he knew 
that severe persecutions and bitter disappointments 
would come ; and he wanted them to get where none of 
these things would move them. 

Many Christians, when trials come, when persecu- 
tions come, when reverses come, and adverse winds 
blow, and things do not go just as they want them to 
go, get discouraged, grow cold, lukewarm, and back- 
slide. Why is this ? They are not rooted in God's eter- 
nal love. ''Grounded :" this is a metaphor taken from a 
building founded on a rock. 

A lighthouse was built on a stormy seacoast. In a 
little while it was washed away. A second one was 
built. Old ocean summoned her waves, and it was 
washed away. An architect was employed to build the 
third. The first thing he did was to ascertain why the 
others had fallen. He soon discovered the cause. They 
were not properly founded. He set his men to work, 
and they began to excavate. Down they went through 
gravel, and sand, and debris, down, down, until they 
reached the solid rock. Then they laid the foundation, 
and keyed it fast to the solid granite, and on that solid 
foundation reared the superstructure. In the great 
tower the lamp was placed. Again old ocean summoned 
her waves, and hurled her mighty billows against the 
towering lighthouse ; but every billow broke and fell 
harmless at its base. Neither the winds nor the waves 
nor the storms had any effect whatever upon that mas- 
sive building ; for it was founded upon a rock. So may 
the Christian stand if grounded in the eternal love of 
God. No trial, no sorrow, no persecution, no reverse, 



172 CoAi.s i^RoM "tni^ A1.TAR. 

can move in the least the man who is rooted and 
grounded in God's eternal love. 

What power there is in a parent's love ! How it sus- 
tains amid all disappointments ! How that love follows 
the erring child, and never lets go its hold ! The child 
may have wandered away in sin, and gone down, step 
by step, lower and lower, until standing on the lowest 
round of the ladder of sin. Friends have lost all hope, 
brothers and sisters have given up in despair, all others 
have become discouraged. But not so the parent. That 
love is still the same. It has followed the erring child 
in all its wanderings, and still clings to the child when 
all others have given up and all others have forsaken. 
And that love sustains, that love comforts, that love 
fans and keeps alive the flame of hope in the heart. O 
the wondrous power of a parent's love ! Who can weigh 
it ? Who can measure it ? Who can estimate it ? Who 
can describe it ? 

And yet, as great and powerful as is this human 
love, the love spoken of by the apostle, this Divine love, 
planted in the heart by the eternal Jehovah, is greater. 
It rises far above all human love. This perfect love of 
God, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is 
more potent than the world, the flesh, and the devil; 
more potent than the combined powers of earth and 
hell. Other Christians may despond, but he who is 
rooted and grounded in the love of God is always hope- 
ful. Others may become discouraged, but he does not. 
The altar-fires of heaven on other hearts may burn low, 
but on his, never. This mighty love fans and keeps alive 
the flame of hope and joy everywhere, and all the year 
round. It does not smother out in the summer, nor 
freeze out in the winter. It is not only seen on the 



CoAivS :^ROM the: Awar. 173 

Sabbath-day, but every day during the year. It shines 
just as brightly in the domestic circle at home as in the 
great congregation on the Sabbath-day. It is every- 
where and all the time the same. 

Are you rooted and grounded in the everlasting 
love of God ? If so, like the towering lighthouse on the 
stormy seacoast, you may bid defiance to every wind 
and wave and tempest. Through the darkest cloud and 
the thickest gloom and the heaviest tempest will be seen 
the smiles of an unchanging and ever-present Savior. 

V. Paul wants us to go up still higher. He wants 
us ''to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, 
and length, and depth, and height'' of this wonderful 
love of God. 

Dr. Adam Clarke says, ''These words are so exceed- 
ingly nervous and full of meaning that it is almost im- 
possible to translate them ;" that we may be able to 
seize, catch, take in, fully comprehend this wonderful 
mystery — the love of God in its breadth, and length, 
and depth, and height. 

The Bible tells us, "God is love." God is eternal. 
His love, therefore, is eternal. It was without begin- 
ning; it shall be without end. This love in its vastness 
"comprehends all that is above us, all that is below us, 
all that is past, and all that is to come." This love orig- 
inated, carried forward, and consummated the great plan 
of the world's redemption. 

We get an idea of this love, we comprehend it faintly, 
in a degree, from its effects. This love of God, infinite 
in breadth, and length, and depth, and height, has 
brought salvation, from sin, and guilt, and death, and 
hell, within the reach of every man and woman on this 



174 CoAi.s FROM the: A1.TAR. 

round planet. It has opened wide the gates of glory. 
''And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, . . . and who- 
soever wiir' may come, and enter in through the gates 
into the Celestial City. 

It has gone into the hovels of poverty, and sent cheer 
and sunshine into thousands of desolate hearts and 
homes. It has gone into the palaces of the rich, and 
given them that which wealth and royalty and all the 
fascinating pleasures of earth could not give. 

This infinite love, the depth of which no plummet-line 
has ever yet been long enough to sound, has gone into 
the alleys and lanes, down into the cellars, and up into 
the attics, where despair and remorse have seized their 
victims, — it has gone to these despair-smitten and re- 
morse-seized ones, chased away the gloomy specters, 
brought to them the angel of hope and the chariot of 
faith, into which they have stepped, and ridden triumph- 
antly to glory. 

Mrs. Phcebe Palmer, with a friend, visited a poor, 
fallen woman, who was lying at the point of death in an 
attic at Five Points, New York City. They read the 
Bible, sang, talked, and prayed, until the poor woman 
was converted, and shortly afterwards died rejoicing in 
the world's mighty Savior. While there, a poor in- 
ebriate, after a night's debauch, came to a well which 
stood just beneath the attic, for a drink of water. After 
taking his drink, as he stood by the well, the fierce De- 
cember winds whistling through his thin clothing, he 
heard the voices of these saintly women coming down 
through the window from the attic above. They were 
singing 

"Alas! and did my Savior bleed? 
And did my Sovereign die? 
Would He devote that sacred head 
For such a worm as I?" 



C0AI.S F^ROM the: AIvTAR. 1 75 

The words went with wonderful power to his neart. 
He said to himself: ''Did He die for such a worm as I 
am? Is it possible that Christ can save a poor, wretched 
drunkard like myself?" He started in haste for his 
home. He walked faster and faster; then he began to 
run, and he ran faster and faster, until he reached a 
little shanty, the place he called home. He rushed into 
the' room almost breathless and greatly excited. His 
wife was startled at his sudden and strange appearance. 
She was preparing a meager meal, hoping her husband 
would come and share it with her. His unusual look 
for a moment dazed her. As he looked into the pale, 
wan face of his wife, tears began to flow, and he said: 
''Wife, I have been a very unkind husband. I have 
treated you like a brute. I am unworthy of such a wife 
as you have been. I want you to forgive me. I am a 
poor, miserable drunkard. But, wife, Jesus died for me, 
and I believe He will save me." Then he knelt down 
right in the center of the room, and said : "Wife, come 
and kneel down and pray for me. Ask God to forgive 
me, and I will never touch another drop of liquor while 
I live." In an instant the devoted Christian wife was 
on her knees at his side, and while she prayed salvation 
came to the heart of that poor drunkard, and he arose 
from his knees a saved man. That was the happiest 
moment of their lives. In a little while that home of 
poverty, wretchedness, and sorrow was changed to a 
home of plenty, comfort, happiness, and supreme joy. 
So, we say, when we see some of the efifects of this 
love upon others, how it has given hope for despair, 
light for darkness, certainty for uncertainty, joy for 
sorrow, heaven for hell, we comprehend faintly, in a de- 
gree at least, this wondrous love, in its breadth, and 
length, and depth, and height. 



176 CoAis ??::: ihz Aiiar. 

But, then, we take it in. v. e grasp it, we comprehend 
it more fully, when it has taken hold of our own indi- 
vidual hearts, Kfted us up out of the mire of sin, placed 
om- feet upon the Rock of Ages, put a new song into 
our mouths, even praises to our God, and opened to 
our "view the sublime glories of the heavenly world. 
When we have thus felt its transforming, uplifting, soul- 
inspirir.^ c : . . er, we get a true idea of the greatness of 
this love. 

\'L Paul does not stop. He goes on. He takes 
another step. He wants us to rise higher still. He 
prays that we may 'know the love of Christ which 
passeth knowledge."' 

What strange language is this? He wants us to 
know the imknowable. Strange paradox. Wliat does 
he mean? How are we to understand this? He means 
just this : This love of God, imparted to the heart by the 
direct agency of the Holy Ghost, passeth all htunan 
knowledge. It is above philosophy, above science, 
above a knowledge of all the schools ; it overtops, over- 
sweeps, and towers far above all human tmderstanding. 
It is a spiritual knowledge. 

^^^lat does the sinner know about conversion? 
Simply nothing at all. He may talk ever so flippantly 
about the Bible, Christianity', and religion ; but he is as 
blind as a bat so far as a knowledge of salvation is con- 
cerned, because "the natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto 
him : neither can he know them, because they are spirit- 
ually discerned.'' (i Cor. ii, 14.) This knowledge lies 
in a sphere away be\'ond all earthly knowledge. It is 
within the domain of the spiritual. 

Entire sanctification is in the same spiritual realm, 



Coals i^rom thi; Awar. 177 

but higher up, and the converted man will never under- 
stand sanctification until he gets an experimental knowl- 
edge of it. He may have a theory. It may be beauti- 
ful, fine-spun, and very plausible ; but it is, after all, only 
theory, and not knowledge. The knowledge of this 
perfect love of God Hes in a sphere away beyond all 
theor}^ and all human knowledge. It is within the realm 
of the spiritual. Paul wants us to go up and out beyond 
all theory, up and out beyond all philosophy, up and 
out beyond a knowledge of all the schools, up and out 
beyond all human understanding. He wants us to go 
up where we may know the love of God which passeth 
all human knowledge. 

And now we ask, Do you know the love of God in 
His pardoning power? Do you know the love of God 
in His sanctifying power? Do you know the love of 
God in His sin-destroying, self-annihilating, soul-uplift- 
ing, and soul-keeping power ? If not, we say, Come up 
to this high plain. God says. Come up to this high 
plain ; Christ says. Come up to this high plain ; the Holy 
Ghost says. Come up to this high plain; the angels in 
heaven and the good on earth say. Come up to this 
high plain, where you may know the love of God which 
passeth knowledge. 

VII. Paul takes one more step, and he reaches the 
topmost round on this ladder. He crowns this pro- 
found prayer with the amazing petition, "That ye might 
be filled with all the fullness of God." Glorious climax! 
Soul-cheering, soul-animating, soul-inspiring thought : 
"Filled with all the fullness of God !'* We stagger, and 
the mind bends under the weight of the stupendous 
thought : ''Among all the great sayings in this prayer, 
this is the greatest. To be filled with God is a great 



178 CoAIvS I^ROM the; A1.TAR. 

thing; to be filled with the fullness of God is still 
greater; but to be filled with all the fullness of God 
utterly bewilders the sense and confounds the under- 
standing." 

Beyond all question, it is a prayer for perfection in 
the very highest sense; a prayer for an uttermost sal- 
vation ; a prayer that the last vestige of sin may be en- 
tirely swept from the soul, and the downward drift 
entirely removed; a prayer that the soul may be filled 
with all the gifts and graces of the perfected Christian 
character, and that gives to it the constant upward and 
heavenly trend. 

How any one can read this prayer, and then limit 
God's salvation, is a mystery. It seems that no one can 
possibly read this profound prayer, and plead a single 
moment for the continuance of indwelHng sin. If this 
prayer teaches anything, it certainly teaches that God 
is willing and ready to eradicate from the heart every 
form of evil ; that He is ready and willing to break every 
fetter and strike off every chain that sin has forged; 
that He is ready and willing to give us perfect liberty 
from every form of sin, and from every evil tendency; 
so that we may be free as the bird and happy as the lark, 
soaring away to the skies, singing upon the wings of 
liberty. 

Have you been strengthened with might by His 
Spirit in the inner man? Does Christ dwell in your 
heart by faith? Are you rooted and grounded in love? 
Do you comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, 
and length, and depth, and height, and do you know the 
love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and are you 
filled with all the fullness of God? Are you standing 
upon this lofty mountain summit? Are you bathing 
your happy soul in the sunlight of heaven, and are you 



CoAIvS ]^ROM the: AIvTAR. 1 79 

drinking in some of the bliss of the glorified? Well, 
there is still more beyond; for God is ''able to do ex- 
ceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think/' 

You may ask great things of God, but He is able 
to do more than you can ask. You can think of a great 
deal more than you can ask. ''The think,'' says Dr. 
Steele, "is greater than the ask." Imagination can go 
out into fields of beauty and pleasure, and open up to 
the rapt vision scenes of bliss and glory that no lan- 
guage can possibly describe. And yet, after all, God is 
able to do for you more than you have ever read, or 
asked, or thoug^ht. Glory be to His name for ever and 
ever! May the answer to this marvelous prayer come 
to every reader of these pages ! 



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Flashes from lilghtningr Bolts. Library edition 15 cents. 

Out of Egrypt into Canaan. 25,000 have been circulated. The spiritual les- 
sons illustrated by the march of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. Frontis- 
piece, a colored chart of Israel's journeyings. Cloth. 196 pages 80 cents. 

Bound in Buckeye covers 25 cents, 

Pentecostal Ai^gressiireness. The history of a Forbidden Holiness Camp- 
meeting in Maryland, and why it was held 10 cents. 

Pentecostal Preachers. A chapter from ** Lightning Bolts." Sham preach- 
ers exposed 10 cents. 

BeviTal Kindlin{?s. Facts and incidents to kindle Revival fires. Five editions 
have been sold. 336 pages. Cloth $1. 

Beviiral Tornadoes. Life and soul-saving labors of Evangelist J. H. "Weber. 
Cloth $1. 

River of Death, The. The Ten Commandments explained, Illustrated, and 

applied. Especially for the young. Cloth 60 cents. 

Bound in Manilla covers 15 cents. 

Sparks from BeTival Kindlin$irs. Selections from "Revival Kindlings." 
Manilla covers 10 cents. 

Wrecked or Rescued. A Salvation Chart, lithographed in seven colors, 
22x28, tinned for hanging. It locates people in reference to salvation. 
Whether in the Marshes of Sin, on the River of Death, nearing the Falls of 
Eternal Despair, or on the Plains of Regeneration, or Holiness Heights. 
Beautiful and powerful. A mighty, silent preacher. Post-paid, in a secure 
paper tube 60 cents. 

Pearls from Patmos. One of the last books God gave Brother Knapp. It is 

a marvelous exposition of Book of Revelation. 253 pages. Cloth 80 cents. 

Bound in Manilla S5 cents. 

Bible Songs of Salvation and Victory. A Full-salvation book, contain- 
ing hymns on Salvation, Sanctiflcation, Divine Healing, and Second-coming. 

Just issued. Board covers -^ cents. 

Muslin covers 20 cents. 

Oospel Wall-Calendar. The last thing God gave Mr. Knapp before his 
translation. A constant, effective, silent teacher Price, Free-will offering. 

Four dollars' worth of these books for $3; with God's Revivalist one year, 
$3.50. One dollar's worth of them, as a premium, for two new Revivalist sub- 
scribers. 

Address GOD'S REVIVALIST OFFICE. 

MOUNT OF BLESSINGS. .... CINCINNATI. OHIO. 



A NEW BOOK FROM THE FACILE PEN OF 
A. M. HILLS. 

Life of Charles Q. Finney. 

A fascinating: story of a wonderful man* 

An exposition of what the power of God does* 

Would you know bow to \ 

Keep sweet and winsome ? Iwy A lU* p L 
Live close to Qod? j istdSl llllS BOOK. 

Save souls? ) 

OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR: 

HOLINESS AND POWER. 

It treatvS of the Disease of the Modern Church ; the Remedy ; 
How to Obtain the Blessing ; the Baptism with the Spirit ; 
Results of Obtaining It. 

WITNESSES TO ITS WORTH. 

New York Christian Advocate — " It is a strong, forceful, earnest 
presentation of great truths, too often misunderstood and neglected." 

Revivalist, of Cincinnati— ^' li is able, original, forceful, and con- 
vincing — a battery of guns that can not be spiked or captured. It is 
one of the most valuable additions to the holiness literature of the 
present day." 

Price, $U Four copies, post-paid, $3. 

FOOD FOR LAMBS ; or, Leading Children to Christ. 

It is fittingly named. 

It is nutritious food, building up the spiritual system. 
Healthful food, fortifying against spiritual disease. 
Palatable food, delightful to the taste of the lambs. 
Safe food, free from all poisonous adulterations. 

Beautifully illustrated. Price, 80 cents. 

PENTECOSTAL LIGHT. 

Prajdng in the Spirit ; Filled with the Spirit ; Quench Not 
the Spirit. 

Price, 50 cents. 
THE WHOSOEVER GOSPEL. 
A melting message to the unsaved. 

Price, 50 cents. 



I 



A NEW 



New Testament Translation 



By W. B. GODBEY. 



J^ J^ J^ 



From the original Greeli, using as basis 
the famous Tischendorf Mianuscript. 



In this volume is in-^ 
eluded a harmony of 
the Gospels and Synop- 
sis , malcing it a com- 
plete reference book 
for Bible students. ^ 



b 



^ je/ j& 



A COMPAINIOIN VOLUME TO 



fiODBEY'S NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY. 



BIBLE SONGS 



or 



SALVATION AND VICTORY 

Beautiful and pointed hymns on Salvation, Sanctifica- 
tion, Divine Healing, Second Coming, and for the young 



Suitable for the Sunday-school 
X " " " Church 

" " Home 
** *' " Evangelistic Fields 



PRICE 



Board, - - 23 cents M\islin, - - 20 cents 

Per dozen, cloth, prepaid, - $2 00 Per 100, cloth, not prepaid, $12 00 
Per dozen, board, prepaid, - 2 75 Per 100, board, not prepaid, 15 00 



OFFICE OF "GOD'S REVIVALIST - 

MOUNT or BLESSINGS, CINCINNATI. OHIO 



JOV^ 



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ICC 


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1902 



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